a possum called our attic home.

Have you ever had a possum in your attic? They kind of creep you out when they walk across the ceiling with their claws scratching and digging in the insulation. Not a good roommate to have. Since they are nocturnal animals, this scratching and digging ocurred above the bed at around 4:00-5:30 am. The little creature got into the attic by ripping open a vent in the eave of the roof. Here is what the new vent looks like...

This is what the old vent looked like after a crazy possum wanted to make a nest in our attic insulation...

We have not heard the possum milling around in our attic since the first two nights last week. Our neighbor, Mr. Scott, said he was probably just using it as a hotel and moved on. The lack of new possum poop on the roof suggests that he is right. Nevertheless, he let us borrow his trap that he used to catch one in his garage earlier this year. It is a non-lethal trap, but I decided to use it anyway. I was hoping to climb up on the roof one morning and find a half dead possum gasping for air in a large mousetrap type mechanism, but I guess the humane way to rid your house of unwanted visitors is the way to go. Besides, Coan likes to look on the roof, too, and see if we caught that little sucker. I would hate to scar him for life by showing him a half dead, puffy headed, bug eyed varmint before breakfast.

After a week of having the trap on the roof by the vent opening, no possum was ever caught. Apparently he didn't care much for cat food or peanut butter sandwiches and never walked into the trap. Maybe he saw one of his brothers get nabbed in one and knew better. Since we did not hear him anymore I decided to take down the trap and replace the vent. I only used a couple of nails on it in case he was still in the attic and wanted to get out. I didn't want the smell of dead possum coming from my roof in the event that I happened to trap him in the attic.

Yesterday I went out to get the paper from the yard and the vent was still intact. Today when I went to get the paper it was pulled (or pushed?) open a little bit. I'm not sure if he was still in there and got out, tried to get back in and gave up, or if Crunchy the Squirrel and his buddy squirrel that he plays chase with were stashing acorns in our attic. I guess you will just have to stay tuned to find out...