Possums!

Possums!
originally published in LifeStyle Magazine, March 2005

everal years ago, my wife and I began hearing "noises" above our bedroom at night. Thinking it was squirrels chasing each other around in the moonlight, we simply put up with it for a while.

Then over coffee, my wife stumbled upon an article in the morning paper about RATS IN THE ATTIC. It said, “If you think you have squirrels, you probably don’t. Squirrels aren't nocturnal."
"RATS!" we shouted in unison. I was up in the attic in a jiffy looking around.

Soon I spotted a nest of leaves under an air duct. I poked at it from across a rafter with a stick. It moved. With neck hairs raising, I swiftly stepped back to assess the situation.

Best thing to do was to come down from the attic and think. I jumped down the ladder two steps at a time or so it seemed. Maybe I’ll take my shop vac up there with me. I can vacuum the nest into it, and a rat or two along with it, I thought.

After summoning some courage, up I went again with my trusty vac. Banging my head and knees several times, I vaulted studs and struts and retraced my steps. With my shop vac plugged into my 150-foot-long orange extension cord, leaves were being sucked up in good fashion. Before long, there weren't any more, so I turned off "Trusty."

That's when I heard the growl. Those neck hairs were immediately erect once more. My lumpy throat let out a yelp, "Honey! Please come and save me."

Pushing the end of the vac’s hose under the air duct revealed a large mouth full of teeth. My lumpy throat, neck hairs and I headed back downstairs for safer ground. But I soon realized, it was just a possum.

Just a possum! What was he doing up there? I reconnoitered. I talked to neighbors. I looked up Possums on the Internet. Several suggestions included mothballs. I threw some up there. The possum quieted down for a night or two, but he was soon back at it, trotting all over the attic and leaving his little "piles of presence" everywhere.

Desperate, I went to Coronado Hardware on the Beachside for advice. This little store never ceases to amaze me. They always have just the right thing. They gave me plenty of ideas on how to use the live trap I purchased. If it worked, I'd have him caged and could get rid of him in somebody else's neighborhood.

I came home, shiny new trap in hand - opened up a can of the smelliest cat food I could find at Food Lion, and set the trap near where I had seen the nest. I tied it to some rafters with twist ties, hoping that when it sprung, it would be loud enough that we’d hear it downstairs.

That evening, just as Jeopardy was ending, a loud boom blasted through the house. My wife and I looked at each other. "I think we got him," she said softly.

And that’s the story of how we caught the first possum. Over the next several days there’d be two more. Each time we’d put the little critter in the car and drive him about 15 miles to a wooded spot where we'd release him. One of these excursions occurred at 2:30 a.m. on my wife's special Milestone Birthday. It was mighty early, but the trap woke us, and we didn't want to leave the little guy up there with a half eaten can of cat food when he could be running free with his friends in the woods over on the State Road 44.

Smyrnans can usually find Bill Cook wandering about town looking for a story about our locale. Maybe yours will be his next tale. You can write to him at PO Box 1029, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32170 or send him e-mail at Bill.Cook@GCO. COM.