Monday, July 12, 2004

is it possum or opossum? nature's great mystery

Operation Chipmunk is turning into Operation Every Small Animal in the Neighborhood. So far, we've caught the following: six chipmunks, two squirrels, a bird, and as of this morning, a baby possum.

The chipmunks we took to a nature reserve, and the squirrels and bird we just let go. The possum was different. First of all, we caught it this morning which is a weird time of day for a possum to be out. It wasn't hissing or anything, like I was expecting, and it really didn't move all that much. Since it was acting so strangely, and we didn't want our dog getting ahold of it, I took it to the reserve where we'd been taking the chipmunks. When I opened the cage, he just kind of sauntered out like he didn't have a care in the world. I was half expecting it to turn around and latch onto my face or something, but it didn't seem at all upset that it had spent the better part of the day stuck in a small cage.

I just set the trap back up and I'm just waiting to go back out there and find some new animal in it.

Earlier, I was outside and just happened to glance at the bird feeder. I was surprised to see a squirrel hanging from it, upside-down, trying to reach its hands in the holes along the side to get some of the seeds. It was working until the squirrel lost its footing and fell on the ground.

I'm beginning to think the animals around here are rather strange. Or they're just really stupid. I don't really care either way, because it's entertaining as hell.

1 comment:

  1. I think i'd be too sad catching animals like that, even if i was going to set them free. then again, this is coming from the girl who wishse she could assemble a healthy portion of carrots and lettuce and leave it out for the bunnies in our backyard.

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