Possum Wranglin

[7br]

Three kids can eat up most of a person's free time and all of the family's disposable income. Between Jake's swimming, Clint's soccer, Grace's gymnastics and scouts for all three, Cori and I barely have time to sleep. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that 18 months after our move, we still had not gotten all of the effluvia in the garage taken care of. After three weekends of cleaning, I finally got enough stuff shoved to the edges that we can park both vehicles in the garage.

Cori is the leader of Gracie's Brownie troop. Basically, it came down to Cori taking it on, or no troop for Grace. (This is exactly how she wound up as a soccer coach for Jake) Cori was also suckered into running the first fund raiser which has been a royal pain in the keister. We had a hundred plus packages of nuts and chocolates in our spare bedroom. Naturally, the dogs decided to sample a box of peanut butter cups. A quick call to the vet and a dose of peroxide had the dogs puking up the remains of their culinary adventure in the backyard. (1 Tbsp of peroxide per 10 lbs of dog will have them heaving for the next 45 minutes. Mix it with dried milk to get them to drink it) Parents were slow picking up product and even slower turning in reciepts. With today being the audit from the grand poobah of the Girl Scout fundraisers and lacking about $250 of reciepts, Cori was a little stressed last night. Earlier in the day, two sets of the parents had called and assured us that they would run their reciepts by right after school. At 8:15pm, Cori's stress level peaked. She started calling around and we found out that while we were frantically trying to get 14 copies of paperwork in order and arranging funds to cover the product, they had tucked their little ones in bed and were retiring to bed for a restfull night themselves. I volunteered to run by and pick up their reciepts and egg their houses. I slipped my bunny slippers on and headed to the garage. Just as I opened the garage door, the other mother pulled into our drive. I escorted her into the living room and went back to my car. I backed up and reached for the garage door opener when I noticed what looked like a pile of oily rags on the garage floor directly under where my mercury tracer had been parked. A second look revealed two beady eyes and a long, ratlike tail. We had a 20lb possum in our garage.

My father taught me what to do in these situations. If you can get a clear shot, a .22 behind the ear works wonders, otherwise a louisville slugger will dispatch the critter for easy disposal. Naturally, I didn't follow either one of these suggestions. Instead, I went inside to get my wife, kids and other mother so I would have an audience. After 15 minutes of the kids oohhing and aahhing, I started to circle around it to scoot it out of the garage. At this point, my wife said we really should have a picture. I located the 35mm camera, but the flash was missing. Back to the office for the digital with the dead batteries. When I returned the the garage with the camera and trailing power cord, the possum had wedged itself between a toolbox and my workbench. As I approached, my wife and kids were telling me "Not to scare the poor thing". I took several pictures and then donned on my leather gloves in preparation for a possumectomy. For those of you without possum experience, let me inform you that what they lack in offensive skills, they more than make up for in toughness and sheer determination. It is my opinion that they are just too dumb to die. I grabbed the tail and started to drag it from its hiding spot. This really agitated the kids and they were yelling at me not to hurt it while all the time I could imagine my father saying "Why isn't it dead and buried by now?. I managed to get it dislodged from behind the toolbox and just about had it clear when it managed to snag a couple of little grills my oldest son had found on a camping trip. Two hefty shakes and the grills fell to the floor. A quick walk to the front yard and the possum was let free to trundle on off into the night grumbling about the rude treatment it received at my hands. With the emergency over and victory declared, I, myself, headed out into the night to collect the rest of the girl scout reciepts. As I drove off, my wife hollered from the front stoop "He looked hungry, do you think I should feed it?".

[redneckdan]

hmm, you handled it better than I would have. For me it would have been a toss up between the .357 with red dot sight, the 870 with #9 shot, or the M1 garand.

[Mk42gunner]

He'll be back with buddies, especially if you feed it. Even though a .22 is all you NEED, I usually grab the 30 Carbine by the door.

[redneckdan]

I caught a possum once when attempting to run a trap line. After my trap line partner emptied his 10/22, said possum chased us through the woods dragging a pair of #2 coil springs and the accompanied anchors, sucker finally died about 25yds later. I'd use the garand..on second thought, better add a barrett to the collection.

[dk17hmr]

I would have been with your dad on this matter.

One place I was working this summer I was giving permission to shoot every raccoon I saw throughout the day. While putting up siding that whole day my boss and I shot 17 with an air rifle. Before we were done working there we shot 25.

I watched my old man shoot 3 possums from under my neighbors deck with a single shot 22 wiht shorts and a mini mag light when I was 8. We live in the country and varmints are common around our house, not as common since I started hunting.

[Dr.Doug]

The possums in my neighborhood tend to run for cover when I confront them. I prefer my Super Redhawk 454-loaded with 7 1/2 shot- for work in the garage. The first round will usually roll a fast-moving, good-sized vermin, but the 2nd round stops them before they get under the workbench. Any more my wife doesn't even come to the garge to see what's happening...

[Old Ironsights]

I have .38sp "possum/coon" loads for my Rossi 92. 5gr BP/Sub (compressed under farina) pushing a pure lead 180gr HP. Nearly silent and rolls 'em neat.

Otherwise I go for the Aguila 60gr SSS (super sub-sonic) .22s out of whatever .22 is handy.

Condo Neighbors get twitchy when they hear "real" gunfire.

[Ricochet]

I've got pesky 'coons that I'm sick of. I can't shoot critters here. I'm going to borrow a live trap and relocate some of 'em.

[JeffinNZ]

Your talents are wasted. You should be writing newspaper columns.

FANTASTIC.

[SharpsShooter]

I use a 1911 for my possum medicine and find that my carry load of 185gr Remington JHP's are just what the doc ordered. Years ago, at my grandfathers house one evening, he mentioned a possum had been getting into the big trash can that he used for dog food storage. I went out on othe back deck where the can was and discovered him perched on the top of the can. Shooting him off the can was a safety no-no due to the direction of fire, so I yelled at it to inspire movement and waited till his shoulders had just cleared the edge of the deck and planted one between the shoulder blades. End of possum. While typing this I remembered my Grandmother, many many years ago, chasing one out from under the farmhouse porch and pummeling it to death with a stick of stove wood in the middle of the night. She had been woke up by the dogs barking and had gone to see what the racket was all about, when she spotted it trying to hide under the porch. She was a fiery little woman of 5'2" and a bit over 70 when that happened.


SS

[waksupi]

Live trapping is good. Find our where your local animal rights leader lives, and deliver all animals to them. They particularly like pack rats and skunks.

[Lightning Ross]

I was shoeing horses for a gal in NW ore. long ago and was busy working away when out of the grain room out waddled a full size possum.It came right for me .Now knowing they are nocternal I figured something wasnt right.So ole possum was headed right for me I backed up to my anvil and grabbed my 21/2lb shaping hammer and when he got to close I let him have it about three times.Had blood and grey brain matter spattered all over .Im perty good at swinging a hammer. In comes the owner .Come to find out she found a dead possom by her mailbox and it had one little baby stuck on it and she bottle fed it and raised it up I had just murdderd her family pet Needles to say I didnt work there any more.

[StanDahl]

Sheesh - such firepower brought to bear on such a dumb harmless beast.

Any 'possum I find around the yard here in suburbia just gets picked up by the tail (no gloves) and deposited over the fence. Some are so surprised that I've come after them that they just sit there. A few will run, some will even make a pretty convincing stand after running for a bit. Here's a tip: as you carry them you have to twist the tail now and then to keep them from climbing up their tail to do who-knows-what to your hand - probably nothing, though. The little cute ones that get into the house through the hole in the screen get their picture taken with the kids as it drools on my arm.

I had one for a pet for a few years a long time ago. Not much for personality, or cuddly either, but they clean themselves like a cat. This one was potty trained and would wait outside the bathroom door to be let in to do its business. Not a bad deal, if you don't mind a cat-sized animal crapping in your tub. (What - you thought it used the toilet?) Giving it a bath meant wetting it and patiently waiting for it to empty its entire digestive tract via the back end before proceeding. They can pump out an impressive volume if it goes all at once like that. I actually kept her in the classroom most of the time and a student kept her at home during the summer. Her family didn't mind her having free roaming rights in the house. Our custodian was from Alabama and always offered to keep her nice and warm (probably about 350° for 90 minutes or so) during vacations.

A while ago, someone spotted a really big one on the back block wall during a get together. I grabbed it and walked through the garage into the front drive with the twisting beast held out in front of me. You all should have seen the chairs scatter and the drinks dump. You'd have thought that each one of them thought that some knucklehead about to throw a big nasty saber-toothed 'possum at them. For some reason, I was the only one laughing. Stan

[Buckshot]

.................7br, great story and well told. Thanks for the smile!

................Buckshot

[JakeBlanton]

Live trapping is good. Find our where your local animal rights leader lives, and deliver all animals to them. They particularly like pack rats and skunks.

Or HOA board members.

[292]

I could tell possum stories all day. How about a possum poem.
Love is curious thing and so is a blossom.
If you want your finger bit poke it at a possum.
Told to me by my grandmother when me and one of my buddies brought home a baby raccoon.