Friday, March 26, 2010

Camera Critters ~ 3~26~'10 ~ 'Un-invited Guest'



~~~




*Go here* to find more CC posts!

~~~

Last night, when I went to see if my 3 cats were settled in for the night on the back porch, I had a bit of an unpleasant surprise waiting for me!

Let me explain a little about the situation first...
The porch is screened but I have been leaving the screen door open so the cats can come and go -since the weather has been more often bad than good lately. In fact, last night was a rainy night and so I had left the door open so the cats could have a cozy place to sleep.
(They do have a fine place on the patio, but I feel better having them under our roof, especially when it's cold or rainy.)

Apparently, another little creature was in need of shelter too- or just hungry for the meow mix I had served my kitties! When I looked out the sliding glass door, separating our family room from the porch, this is what I saw! This is the biggest opossum (Possum) I've ever seen!




Yikes! You can bet I didn't dare open that door...He was just sniffing around looking for food...The 3 cats were there but didn't seem at all perturbed by the visitor....nor did they greet him or show any friendly gestures toward him! (Thankfully!) I would guess they have seen these critters before...and while not afraid of them will, respectfully, keep a distance from them!

I, of course, grabbed my camera but the pics are not that great-shot through the glass door! It's the best I could do!! It didn't take him long to realize he was being watched and made a quick exit out the door!!

Sorry - animal lover that I am I have to say there's nothing appealing about a Possum; he creeped me out, to be honest about it!! They are so 'alien-looking!'

A few weeks ago I saw a Raccoon on the porch-but I didn't get his picture. Actually , he was looking in at me- right up to the glass door! At least the Raccoon was cute... and I would have liked to get his picture! (through the glass)

From now on the screen will be latched by nightfall-and my cats will just have to be captives overnight!



PS-Does anyone know how to get rid of these critters??


Junie



11 comments:

  1. Ooooh, Junie - I'm not a fan of opossums either!! We had a bad experience with them several years ago. One night, we noticed one in the tree in our front yard. A couple of nights later, we found one (a huge one!) right outside our front door on the front steps! A few days after that, we started hearing scrabbling noises under our living room... and THEN - worst of all - one day this scrabbling was followed by the appearance of a long opossum tail popping up through the vent in our living room floor!!!!! EEEEK!!! That was when we called Animal Control. They found that an opossum family had found (or made??) a hole in our heating ducts under the house and decided to live there! They closed up the hole and set traps under the house so they could catch the opossums and set them loose in the wild, but no opossum was ever caught. My theory is that the traps were too small for these enormous creatures! However, with their cozy heating duct house blocked off, the opossum family apparently decided to go elsewhere, and we never saw them again. Thank GOODNESS!! And I certainly hope such a thing will NEVER happen to you!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. !!!!!! We must be Soul Sisters Girl!!Hahaaa...
    I was sitting on OUR patio the other night...SAME thing! A Possum! I'm 'gonna blog about it when I Finally get a Quiet moment!!
    hughugs

    ReplyDelete
  3. EEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!! My mother has all kinds of critters come on her porch but she puts scraps out there for them. Maybe you are feeding the cats there and can feed them somewhere else?
    Junie Rose, I bet you could catch a tiger by the tail so why not a possum. lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Junie,

    I have a possum that comes every evening as well, and he is actually quite tame. He takes food from my hand. They may be homely looking creatures but really aren't dangerous at all, except if you have chickens! I live in the boonies and get all kinds of critters. Even have an armadillo here. Talk about strange looking!

    Good picture of the possum.

    Renie

    ReplyDelete
  5. haha-Donna,

    Can't wait to hear about your Possum encounter!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Skye,

    Yikes! That had to be a bad thing-having them get inside your heating ducts!!

    Well, after thinking about our situation I have decided I only need to change my practice of feeding my cats on the porch!...Even if we could trap and remove them (the ones I've seen) there must be others besides these 2.

    I'm not gonna worry about it!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. haha-Dot,

    That possum tail didn't look like it would be too easy to hold on to!!

    But yer right....these animals were attracted by the food so I will take care with feeding the cats and not leave food around to attract the wildlife!


    I DO think I will feed the wildlife, tho- but WAY-WAY back away from the house!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Renie,

    Well, that's amazing...feeding the possum out of your hand! That makes me feel a little better about them!

    ...still...I don't think I'll try that :) ...

    Thanks so much for coming by.


    Junie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Interesting looking creature but I don't think I'd welcome one into my house - not that there's any chance of that happening in UK! Hope your possum and his friends and relations have permanent quarters already somewhere else.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hahaha, your home is like a zoo, cats, possums, raccoons :)

    ReplyDelete