'Possums, Again!

The neighbor's cat food was disappearing faster and faster. Finally he surprised the thief. It took off, waddling swiftly toward our house... and under! When he let me know of the new resident I visited the Lavendar Mountain Hardware and made a $70 contribution toward their Merry Christmas and came home with a Hav-A-Hart trap. I set it with dogfood for bait near the spot the varmint had last been seen, fully expecting to catch as many cats as 'possums. Day after day the bait disappeared magically, but no critter was caught.

Then, as I drank my coffee on Monday morning last, I heard what I took to be an angry feline. "Oh, no! I've finally caught a cat!" I assumed. I nearly spilled the coffee when I bent over the cage and found a hissing 'possum instead. Already late to work, I left him incarcerated for the day.

That evening I placed the trap on the back of the truck, and drove to the PTO meeting at school -- several of my students were delighted to ogle my captive.




Afterwards I drove around to the entrance to the school's nature trail and opened the cage. I figured the huge Berry College woodland preserve behind the school would give the feller his best chance to postpone his roadkill destiny.


After considerable coaxing the critter plummeted into darkness down the trail.