OK, so I have this possum hanging around my lanai (enclosed porch except the hurricanes have blown out most of the bottom screens!!!). He (?) comes in around the same time each night and eats the cat's food. We have 6 outside cats and they don't seem to be bothered by the possum, although for some reason he really bugs me!!!! He's very quiet, never fights or fusses with the cats, but he looks like a giant RAT!!!! They are not cute at all!!!!! I've had suggestions of poisoning the food to putting out a trap, but then all I would wind up with would be 6 deat cats or a cat stuck in the trap (humane trap, please!) Does anyone have any ideas of how to get this rodent out of my life????
Dianelori

DL,
You are right. ‘possums are U-G-L-Y!!!! Bad ugly. Especially if they get REALLY mad and start hissing and whatnot. They make some really atrocious faces. LOL

And...thing that I have found about ‘possums? The don’t play dead as their first line of defense. Not at all! Those buggers come out FIGHTING..all teeth and nails and lashing long rat tail....Yech! ! Only when they think that they have no chance of either fighting off, or scaring the CRAP out of who or whatever is bugging them, will they finally drop and play dead. And, they can play dead for quite a long time. LOL

The problem with yours, is that you are feeding it. If you could stop putting food out for it to easily get, then it would mosey on off to greener pastures. But...since you HAVE to feed your kitties.....I don’t know what to do? It won’t help to put the food up higher, as ‘possums can climb. You are right that you can't poison him, because of your kitties. The humane trap thing....that would work, but I bet that you would wind up catching everyone one of your cats at least once, and some more than that, before you ever had a chance of catching Briar ‘Possum...and probably he would just learn to stay away from it.

Hmmmmm. I don’t know.

I am glad that I don’t have a ‘possum to deal with right now. What we have instead is an armadillo that lives around here, and moseys around in the yard at night...at least a couple of times a week. Those things are a trip. Freaks Meghan out when she sees it, ROFL! And, they DO NOT get in ANY kind of a hurry! LOL

Still haven’t seem him ball up....I want to see him do that sometime.....but, I am not going to get out there and poke at him or anything....for all I know they hiss and turn into a rolling collection of teeth and claws too, only coated in armor instead of furr! ROFL

I will see what I can find out about getting rid of ‘possums..and get back to you. In the mean time...just leave him alone. I mean it; those things ARE NOT NICE at ALL if they get scared or mad.....Yech!!!!!!!!!!!


Jose

Hi DianeLori!
Have you tried calling the local animal control to come relocate the animal? They'll do it for free! Good luck!! ~Love, Desi

My Nurse just asked me how to get rid of a raccoon.

She tried the trap and he dumped it over and got the food out.

Growing up in Ky. I remember Dad just set traps. Back then though, they sold the hides. I don't know if they do sell today.

Since you have so many cats, it's going to be interesting in how to catch it. I would like to know so I can let my nurse know.

Out at my old place we delt with skunks one year. Bill stepped out back and got sprayed in the eyes by one. I had to call the poison control to find out what to do. I couldn't get within 25 feet of him. I think this year is going to be raccoons. I have seen 3 dead ones on the same road and now my nurse is dealing with one. I hardly ever hear of possoms or raccoons around here.

I don't know how animal control is where you are but they won't come out to catch them here but they might give you tips on how to catch them.

Ada

we deal with little chipmunks upnorth, but they are too cute to trap.......so we let them be........

but in florida we have an armadillo too....he digs friggin holes under our lanai...................

i will be interested to find out how you catch/get rid of this trouble...........i have a dog, so i won't set out anything......

at least they are not alligators huh? we have those in our lakes in our community...........

Live Trap. Call your local Animal Control officer, or Game Warden and borrow a live trap. Put the cat food in the trap. You may catch some of your cats at first but it won't hurt them. You'll only catch a cat once. They are smart like a raccoon and won't go in the trap again.

If it's a momma possum it's already taught it's babies to come and get the food so don't quit trapping after the first one is caught.

Or.... sit very quietly on your porch with a .22 and when it shows up..... well you know the rest. Unfortunately that is the rule of thumb if the animals are out wandering during the day as they are probably sick.

With raccoons you have to stake the trap down so they can't move it.

Now, for the bad news. These critters can pass disease to your cats and injure domestic animals. If their saliva contaminates the water your cats can get sick too.If they have ingested poison from any other place and your cats snack on the carcase they can also die from the poison.

Good luck

Hugs and Prayers

There is some good advice here. I think the calling the animal control to see what they can do is best if you dont have the heart for the Dr Winchester. I personally always used the good Dr because it was quick and painless, didnt harm my animals, and usually ended the problem in one or two sittings.

The only one I had problems with that I never did figure out how to get rid of was skunks. I wouldnt use the winchester cause when they die they tend to release, and live trapping was out too. LOL. One time I tried the scare them away method, and banked a golf ball off ones head, and he just turned and looked at me like what did you do that for, just before he went into his little stomp and hiss dance. Had me runnin for the house hahahahaha!

They also were after the cats food, and the cats would eat side by side with them skunks. I lived about a mile off the main highway, and had 4 fixed cats that would grow into at least 3 dozen a year because of people abandoning their pets at the highway. I also had 4 dogs that would also grow in numbers every year to 6 to 8. It was a shame to have to turn them into the animal shelter, but I just couldnt keep feeding dozens of animals a day.

One day I even had a Emu runnin around with my horses. Never did find the owner, but had a great time learning the quirkyness of those birds LOL.

There was one thing I did about the skunks to keep them away from the house, and that was feed the cats further away. We still got the occassional smell when something would set them off, but it wasnt as bad as having it done under your window.

only feed the cats during the day and bring in the food dish at nite?

move the cat dish to a garage?

or even feed them in house and then let them back out?

LOL.....Dr. Winchester!!! Is he anything like Dr. Kevorkian??? LOL!!!

I've been putting the food up at night on top of the BBQ grill. The cats can't eat either, but hubby has been feeding them earlier in the evenings and now they seem to know to hurry and eat cuz mom's gonna come out here and pull this dish away pretty soon!!!!

I tried once before to scare the rat, er, possum away with my mop. I bonked him on the head and all he did was turn around, give me a nasty look and keep right on eating. So then I pulled the dish away (don't know if I'm stupid or just plain angry he's eating up all the cat food!!) and put it on top of the BBQ grill. He looked up at it for a few minutes then left. They're good at climbing fences but they can't jump. And yea Jose, I smacked one once on the head with a shovel and it curled up and played dead.....so I scooped it up in the shovel to toss him into the empty lot across the street. The only problem was that I had to go THROUGH THE HOUSE to get to the front!!!! I was terrified it was gonna wake up and jump off the shovel so I ran to the front door, flung it open, slammed it behind me (so my indoor cats wouldn't follow me) and flung it into the field. Well, fling is kinda the wrong word...it was more like a thump....then I realized I had actually killed it when I bopped it on the head!! The turkey buzzards took care of the carcass the next day!

So far, as long as I leave the food up at night he's not coming around. Hopefully he'll find some other house to terrorize at night!!!

Dianelori