The Possum Wars

Another chapter in the continuing war on possums in the barn. This morning, when we came to feed the horses, I noticed that the barrel where we keep our Senior feed and cat food in was not closed. The lid was off. Hmmmm, that is not a good thing. Erica peeked inside the barrel and there were no critters, however, the feed looked funny. The feed room was a mess, things strewn about, the horse treats were open and dumped so something had been in there.

We started going about our business of feeding horses, Erica was going shopping with a friend today and was on the phone with her friend. I got Kasha started on some grain and Erica was scooping some of the "funny looking” grain out of the barrel and into the feed bag we use for garbage. It was looking full so I shook it down and put it back up against the wall. I was standing in the feed room deciding what to do next, when the bag moved! It moved again! I don’t think Erica believed me so she peeked into the bag and looked right into the face of the possum. My mind is racing. I threw something at the bag to scare it away. But, wait! We have it trapped. How do we keep it trapped? I’m not going to kill it and neither is Erica. We have to trap it in a way that it will stay trapped until tomorrow morning when my husband can deal with it. Hmmmm. I picked up a brick (we have lots of loose and stray bricks in the barn) and threw it on the bag, hoping to close the bag on it. First brick bounced off. I threw another brick and it landed right on top of the bag and closed part of the bag. No movement. I threw another brick and got the other half of the bag closed. Now we have to put the bag under or in something. I know! Let’s put the bag in the barrel. We have to dump that grain anyway. No way it can get out of there if we lock the lid on. Well, you know I'm not going to pick up that bag so I managed to convince Erica to pick up the bag and dump it in the barrel while I stand with the lid to plop on there as soon as she lets go. It worked! Now the possum is trapped in the barrel. Well, I’m 99% sure the possum is in there. I’m pretty sure she or I would have seen it run off had it gotten out of the bag.

So, now my husband has a few choices. He can take the barrel outside and let it out and shoot it. He can load the barrel in the truck, drive it several miles away and just let it go, or he can load the barrel in the truck, drive it several miles away, let it out and shoot it so that if he misses, it is not on the property. I might consider dumping it somewhere else myself but can’t think of a good place to dump it.