Stevensons 5 Possums 2

Greetings to all of my friends and family

. . . . and to their friends and families - I know the story of our struggle with the possums has been widely dispersed

The weekend is finally here. I have completed 10 of the 70 days I have to teach this fall. That makes it 10 down - 60 to go.

We have had some more possum madness around here. Paul has plugged the heater vent outside but we know that there is either a resident possum or a visiting possum among us. He will spend some time this weekend looking for any more access points.

First of all, the possum population has begun getting up later than we go to bed which makes it harder to catch them. As the school week proceeds those of us who are teachers become progressively more exhausted and we have to retire for the evening sooner. The possum doesn't attend the horribly overcrowded school where I am teaching so he can just get a later start on his night. Lucky creature.

However, I did wake up before the sun came up on Friday. I came downstairs and headed for the kitchen to check things out. There was a possum on the kitchen counter. I chased it but it got away into the living room. I saw it run behind the couch and I never saw it come out.

At this point the entire thing ceased to be funny. I took everything that could possibly be considered food off the counter and waited for Paul to get up. He helped me turn the couch over to see if the possum had been living in the couch - it hadn't. I told Paul this was the end. We either get the possum tonight or we were getting a trap. He said we would try one more night and then we could investigate traps. I made it very clear that this HAS to come to an end.

We didn't see or hear any evidence of Possums before bed time. Paul had retired to his bath and I was finishing off one final deck of cards on my solitaire program. I headed upstairs and decided to check the kitchen one last time. I flipped on the light and there in the corner of the kitchen was a possum.

I yelled "PAUL!" in a very loud screeching voice. He jumped out of the bath and ran downstairs. I watched the possum who just sat there looking scared. Paul said we needed to get our possum catching equipment. Do you have any idea how weird it is that we have designated possum handling equipment? Anyway, he got the gloves and I got the laundry basket and the storage container lid that just fits into the basket.

I approached from one side with the basket, Paul approached from the other side and simply reached out and grabbed the possum. He put him in the basket and I clamped down with the cover. We lifted the cover long enough to ascertain that it wasn't Snarl. We named him Stretch. We briefly considered spray painting him. We decided against this as I am confident they cannot walk back from the historical society. Besides the spray paint was in the basement and we had a delivery to make - quickly. Paul headed off for the upstairs to get his wallet and his pants. I headed outside because if the possum figured out how to get out of the basket I wanted him to do it outside.

Paul came down, got the camera and we headed off to the historical society. Now, the historical society has a large arboretum and walking path behind it so depositing a possum there isn't really bad for it. There are lots of trees so there is no reason the thing can't survive. That is, if it has any survival skills besides raiding pantries.

We pulled up in the delivery area. Paul felt we should take pictures since this would hopefully be the last of the possums. I got out of the car and took the lid off the basket and tuned it upside down. Stretch had grasped the inside rungs of the basket. He had no interest in leaving and I had to give the basket several shakes before he could be dislodged. Finally, I was able to deposit the possum amid the monkey grass. We told him goodbye and bid him adieu.

We returned home feeling quite victorious. Paul retired upstairs to finish off his bath and I simply headed to bed.

We decided to leave out a slice of bread to see if we were finally possum free.

When I woke this morning I asked Paul if he had been downstairs last night. He said that he had and the bread was still there. I was really excited. But when I got downstairs the bread was gone. Oh Nooooooooooooooooo! There is at least one more.

The saga continues.

I am pleased that so many of you are enjoying this. I know it will seem more amusing to me when has been over for several months. May that time come SOOON!!!!!!!!!

Love to all of you

Pictures to follow

NANCY