It's a new Chevy Chase movie that I'm working on. LOL. Just kidding. It's the latest of a series of trials that we've been struggling to overcome as a family. However, the situations that have resulted have definitely reminded me of a comedy movie.
So for the past couple of months we've known we had an opossum crawling around up in the roof area. "How did you know it was an opossum", you ask. Elmentary, my dear Watson. We had already caught one about 6 months ago and relocated it and my brother had seen one last November in our backyard.Also, my husband has been working on the siding and had found one of their nests in the eaves. However, he thought he had sealed everything up very well. So you can imagine his irritation when at about 10pm and on into the wee hours of the morning we started to hear scurring feet above us. So over the last week it has gotten bad and sometimes we would smell really bad smells. Like a skunk. We put a trap out and some food in it, but we weren't catching the varmit. So one morning at 2am I said "I hate it and I'm going to shoot all the walls up, I can't stand this anymore! We aren't getting any sleep!" . Of course I didn't really but I think that started putting ideas in my sweet Big Red's head. Because he had already tried to locate it by going up into the attic with a flash light and a pellet gun but had had no luck. So the next night at 1am. He gets up and the next thing I know he has a ladder and a hand saw and starts sawing a hole in the ceiling. So after he makes this hole, my brave crazy husband puts his head through it to look around. and this hole is only big enough for his head and to stick a hand up there with the flash light. and I think to myself, "he's going to scream and fall down and the Opossum is going to be stuck to the back of his head, He's crazy! this is totally a Chevy Chase movie." Well it didn't happen. He came down still angry because he could see the mess the critter was making but no critter. He was so angry he was going to throw a raid bomb up there. But I told him we shouldn't take such a chance of it poisoning us and Lil Red and my sister and her family who were staying with us while they searched for an apartment. So the whole day, I'm worrying that that crazy varmit is going to come falling down through that hole because I can hear it in there. And I know it would be just my luck to come out of the shower and see this thing scurrying across the floor. But nope no sign of the little varmit. I even had dreams about him that night of the critter showing his face in the hole and my husband taking a pot shot at it, but my husband had assured me that that was only a dream. However, the next night at approx. 3am my husband woke me saying he needed my help. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and had work gloves on and the cage in the other. I followed him into the bathroom stumbling as I went to see another hole in the bottom of the bathroom wall. And to my amazement he was pulling out a momma and 5 baby Opossums! And it stank. I went and grabbed baking soda for him to sprinkle in and around the hole after he vacumed. It smelled just like vomit. It was awful! Apparently he was inspired last night to get a mirror and use it to look down inside the wall and was able to see the Mom and the babies. He thinks they had been trapped in there for a while. The only way he could get them out was to cut the hole in the wall. We called animal control to come get them. But by the time he came out the Mom had died from the heat. I feel bad about that because we didn't mean to kill her. We just didn't know that the heat would kill her I mean after all she had lived in the hot attic all that time. So the saga of the Opossums has come to an end. Hopefully the critters got taken far enough away that they won't come back and exercise a vendetta later. I just have to say that we immediately said prayers of gratitude after we had cleaned up the mess and went back to bed to try and get some peaceful sleep. I know Big Red's inspiration was an answer to our prayers. Above are the pics of the now plugged holes and Oppossum family.
So for the past couple of months we've known we had an opossum crawling around up in the roof area. "How did you know it was an opossum", you ask. Elmentary, my dear Watson. We had already caught one about 6 months ago and relocated it and my brother had seen one last November in our backyard.Also, my husband has been working on the siding and had found one of their nests in the eaves. However, he thought he had sealed everything up very well. So you can imagine his irritation when at about 10pm and on into the wee hours of the morning we started to hear scurring feet above us. So over the last week it has gotten bad and sometimes we would smell really bad smells. Like a skunk. We put a trap out and some food in it, but we weren't catching the varmit. So one morning at 2am I said "I hate it and I'm going to shoot all the walls up, I can't stand this anymore! We aren't getting any sleep!" . Of course I didn't really but I think that started putting ideas in my sweet Big Red's head. Because he had already tried to locate it by going up into the attic with a flash light and a pellet gun but had had no luck. So the next night at 1am. He gets up and the next thing I know he has a ladder and a hand saw and starts sawing a hole in the ceiling. So after he makes this hole, my brave crazy husband puts his head through it to look around. and this hole is only big enough for his head and to stick a hand up there with the flash light. and I think to myself, "he's going to scream and fall down and the Opossum is going to be stuck to the back of his head, He's crazy! this is totally a Chevy Chase movie." Well it didn't happen. He came down still angry because he could see the mess the critter was making but no critter. He was so angry he was going to throw a raid bomb up there. But I told him we shouldn't take such a chance of it poisoning us and Lil Red and my sister and her family who were staying with us while they searched for an apartment. So the whole day, I'm worrying that that crazy varmit is going to come falling down through that hole because I can hear it in there. And I know it would be just my luck to come out of the shower and see this thing scurrying across the floor. But nope no sign of the little varmit. I even had dreams about him that night of the critter showing his face in the hole and my husband taking a pot shot at it, but my husband had assured me that that was only a dream. However, the next night at approx. 3am my husband woke me saying he needed my help. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and had work gloves on and the cage in the other. I followed him into the bathroom stumbling as I went to see another hole in the bottom of the bathroom wall. And to my amazement he was pulling out a momma and 5 baby Opossums! And it stank. I went and grabbed baking soda for him to sprinkle in and around the hole after he vacumed. It smelled just like vomit. It was awful! Apparently he was inspired last night to get a mirror and use it to look down inside the wall and was able to see the Mom and the babies. He thinks they had been trapped in there for a while. The only way he could get them out was to cut the hole in the wall. We called animal control to come get them. But by the time he came out the Mom had died from the heat. I feel bad about that because we didn't mean to kill her. We just didn't know that the heat would kill her I mean after all she had lived in the hot attic all that time. So the saga of the Opossums has come to an end. Hopefully the critters got taken far enough away that they won't come back and exercise a vendetta later. I just have to say that we immediately said prayers of gratitude after we had cleaned up the mess and went back to bed to try and get some peaceful sleep. I know Big Red's inspiration was an answer to our prayers. Above are the pics of the now plugged holes and Oppossum family.
2 comments:
Marian & Edward told us about it. I have but one word. EWWWWWWW!
Yep. Bout sums it up.
:D
I was not aware of this but according to your father-in-law the mother did not die. It is the nature of the creature to play like it is dead, give off a terrible odor like it is dead and this is its means of survival. So, you may not have been responsible for its death.
Glad you got it caught. It would be terrible to have 6 of them running around in the attic.
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