One Wednesday night in the back yard, a slight rustling in the near distance caught Tarzan and Jane's attention. Me, Jane, aimed my flashlight toward the sound but saw nothing.
Curiously we searched for the source of the noise and found two beady little eyes shining back at us from high in the branches of the tree.
[Me] Jane: “What in the world is it?”
[Hubby] Tarzan: “Dun-no, think it's a 'possom.”
"Quick, quick go get the Cage. I'll keep him from getting away," Tarzan shouted excitedly.
I moved two rpm's faster than my regular slow-but-steady stride. I grabbed the cage and returned to find Tarzan gleefully speculating as to what kind of animal it was. Was it a 'coon, a 'possom, or maybe it was a plain old squirrel. Either way, we had plans for that rascal.
"What kind of food can we put in there to tempt him to go in? Oh I know, you got any sardines?" asked Tarzan.
"Yea, I have sardines," I answered over my shoulder as I started inside to get them.
We placed the open can of sardines inside the cage, set the trap, locked the gate to the back yard and headed inside to settle down for the night. Quite a bit of conversation that little critter stirred among the group that night. Baby son (grown) was here to spend the night with us. Yaaaa!
Thursday morning, at the sinfully early hour of 6:45 am, Tarzan and baby son checked the cage. Tarzan was beside himself, grinning from ear to ear like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary as he 'dared' to wake me from a sound sleep.
He asked, "Wanna come see what we caught?"
NO, I didn't want to get up, but I did. Uggghhh, it was the only way I might possibly be able to go back to sleep - if I humored him/them. I stumbled from the bedroom through the house like a dried-up mummy, grumpy face and all. On the front porch sat the cage holding, not a possum, not a coon, but a blackish colored kitty cat.
Pretty little thing he was! Huddled in a corner of the cage, he had one foot resting in the empty sardine can. Oooooh (I thought), he's so cute! As I stepped closer he hissed and growled twisting and thrusting like a wild crazy thing. I quickly backed away, that changed my mind about how cute he was.
Tarzan took the kitty to the Humane Society. They inspected it and said it was wild and would have to be put to sleep. Oh, that's too bad, he was kind of cute. Tarzan brought the cage back and we re-set the trap with more sardines to see what we'd catch next.
The next morning I checked the cage, and lo-and-behold, what did I find? A possum! This little bugger wasn’t cute, not by long shot.
Oh well, I wonder how many more critters we'll catch before we tire of the Tarzan & Jane routine and find something more productive to do with our time. I wonder too if we'll ever catch that elusive coon we’re always speculating about.
Right now, I'm waiting for the male people to come home and take this one to the humane society. The humane society staff said they take possoms and coons. Yaaa, now we don't have to hurt them!
Have you ever heard of such a thing happening right in your own back yard? Do you catch and release them? Or do you feed them and let them roam about and go their merry way?
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