Possum!

At some point last fall, we had an exciting possum incursion in our house. Michael heard something under the tub in the downstairs bathroom, and then heard it in a kitchen cabinet. He opened the cabinet and was confronted with a hissing possum. He did not shriek, but did hurriedly put a child lock on the cabinet door. Some investigation revealed that the possum was probably getting into the house through a hole off the back deck:



This is taken from the ground, looking up at the corner of the laundry room where it meets the deck.

Once under the floor, it was able to get into the innards of the house. The kitchen cabinet had a hole cut in the drywall of the back, to allow access to the plumbing for the downstairs bathroom. (The hole was obvious; as a result we were already keeping tools, not food or dishes, in that particular cabinet, even prior to our marsupial visit.)

Michael went so far as to buy a board to close up the hole last fall, but we don't (yet) own a circular saw and he hadn't actually done the repair. But despite some wintry cold, our kitchen remained quiet and we thought we were done with possums; we turned our focus to the ceiling squirrels.

Then there was yesterday, when Michael again heard rustling, again opened the cabinet, and found this:



Oy. (Sorry, animal lovers. I find possums NASTY.) We called a critter remover recommended by the county (which does not provide such a service) and he was happy to take $275 to remove our pal. Happily when Mike got to work he discovered that his officemate is a wildlife rescue volunteer and very experienced at handling possums. They went back to the house and removed Ms. P, using a towel and a cardboard box, and took her back to the rear of our property. She had left the box by mid-day. By 7:30pm Michael had borrowed a circular saw and was cutting the board to fit to hole. Also, I am under strict orders to not leave trash on the back deck, especially if it contains chicken bones. We hope this will end our edventures with possum-kind.