Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wild Animals in Suburbia, Part II

I recently posted (here) about seeing a possum in the backyard. Well, that was just the beginning of the excitement!

About a week later, Griff was using up the remains of a bag of mulch that had been in our garage. When he pulled his hand out of the bag, he felt something furry along with the mulch. This is what he found in the bag.



We had no idea what to do with the babies, so we decided to ask a neighbor who works for a vet. She volunteered to take them to the vet's office, where she could contact someone she knows who raises baby wild animals and releases them into the wild when they're old enough. We decided that was our best option, as we were not willing to leave them in the garage and we were afraid if we left them out at night for the possum to find, a neighborhood cat would find them first.

We were hoping that with the babies gone, the mama possum would leave, too, and our flower beds would no longer be disturbed. That didn't happen, though. After another week or so, Griff decided that he would contact a catch-and-release company and have them set up a trap.

So, that's what we did. The first night, we caught this. Can you tell from the picture what it is? I didn't want to get too close and my zoom is not the best.


The second night, we got the possum.


We decided to set the trap for one more night, and caught another one of these.


Where are all these animals coming from? What in the world is wandering around the neighborhood at night? I had no idea!

We decided we are out of the animal trapping business. We cannot afford to rid the neighborhood of wildlife, one animal at a time.

3 comments:

Sprittibee said...

What did you do with those animals? Poor things.

Rhonda said...

We hired somebody to set the traps. They take the animals away and release them into the wild. Very humane. :)

Sprittibee said...

Ahhh. Good. I was worried.

How was your day today? ;)