Don’t you just love it when someone you love gives you an unexpected present? I know I do. I was in the backyard yesterday with our pack when Molly, our black lab, AKA Molly the Bull, came running over to me. Usually Molly wants to give me one of her toys. I say “Drop” and she drops it in my hand. For some reason for which I don’t understand but am forever grateful, yesterday I told Molly to “Drop” when she was still about three feet away from me. I thought she had brought one of the many plush toys which the girls have eviscerated, but still love to play with. I leaned over to pick it up and immediately started yelling for Doug. After the 4th yell, he made it out from the east wing of our house. (Like our house is that big).
I stood there pointing to what I thought had been a chewed up toy. It was chewed up all right, but it was NOT a toy. It was half a opossum, the front half. Prior to moving to this house I’d only seen one opossum my whole life. It was alive and hanging in my MIL’s garage. Since we moved to this house, almost three years ago, now my opossum sightings are well into double digits for sure; however, they’re all dead. Our house backs up to a bayou. (I guess that’s where they’re all coming from). One of my first postings was about our opossum problem. A couple of these critters have been over 20 lbs. They are huge!- and scary looking. I’m beginning to wonder if the bayou behind our house has toxic waste. They’re getting so big they’re really starting to freak out Nate, Brett, and Doug too.
We don’t leave food out. I don’t know why they keep coming into our yard. Wouldn’t you think they’d catch on? “Hey Steve, don’t go over there, Joe did the other day and he didn’t come back”. I don’t mean to sound callus about this. I absolutely love animals; but I don’t know what else to do. I read that we could keep a strobe light going; that opossums don’t like them. However, I don’t believe I’d be very popular with the neighbors. Since the dogs go in and out the dog door, if we left a human trap out and by chance caught one, one of our pack would hurt themselves on the wire trap trying to get to it.
Years ago, our Siberian Husky, Kiwi was nice enough to bring me a squirrel head. The perfect gift for the mom who has everything, you know. Brett took it and was going to put it under his sister’s pillow. Luckily Doug got it away from him before he could do it. Brotherly love- what a beautiful thing.
