Brave Ruphus! Couple weeks ago I was seeing one in the yard every morning. If it had continued I would have gone to Animal Control to rent a trap. Here Wildlife & Fisheries will pick up trapped possums and raccoons.

oh my goodness, Ruphus is incredibly lucky. We trapped a possum in a havahart trap once because it was going into the walls of our house. We took him to a large park and relocated him there. Once he was in the cage I couldn't BELIEVE the ferocity of his teeth and his front claws. Looked like he could shred anything and everything!

That's what I was thinking, LUCKY Ruphus. He could have had his nose bitten off : (

We have a family of possums every year, along with a family of raccoons. Lovely. If we ever have chickens, we'll have to do deep and double fences.

That's a great picture! I know possums can be dangerous, but I think they're so cute. lol. We get them too, and I often see one on the front porch eating bugs if I have the light on.

My cats ignore them. I'd frame the picture!

I agree, that's a great picture. Ruphus is really brave!

One time my daughter was watching TV in our family room late at night and screamed- there was a possum right up at the window looking at her!

I never knew they were dangerous- I always thought they were kind of cute, especially when they have all their babies following them.

Actually, opossums are more show than dangerous. Had that been a raccoon, Ruphus would be at the vet now! Also, opossums don't carry diseases like raccoons according to our animal control folks (they are much more resistant to rabies than any other mammal). Most of their baring of teeth and hissing is defensive and they do "play 'possum" when really threatened. They just want to be left alone. A woman at our animal shelter, where I took a baby one we found in the yard one morning, told me she had one once that she took to schools because they really are very sweet. When our dogs tree one, we just bring them in and the opossum eventually comes down and heads back into the woods. Worry more about raccoons.

I found a baby possum in my bedroom once...
And trust me, up close and inside your house -- they're NOT cute!

When I went to go to bed one night, I walked into the master bedroom and there he was - right in the middle of the floor, hissing at me! Of course, I screamed. And DH, downstairs watching other people scream on TV didn't hear a thing... I closed all the doors to keep him inside, got DH, then we had to tear the bedroom apart to find him again -- hiding under the nightstand. We put a trash can on top of him, scooped him up from underneath with a no-edge cookie sheet, and set him in the trash can outside for relocation in the morning. Next morning, you would not believe the stench in that trash can! I never knew that possum 'spray' is nearly as stinky as skunk spray.

I *used to* think they were cute too...

I've never seen a possum alive! Always roadkill.

Oh yes, raccoons are a must-avoid, too. I have had to reprogram myself, as my absolute favorite book as a child was _Rascal_ :)

I thought that possum had an awfully skinny nose! Took another look and realized that its mouth was wide open. Good Lord! Lucky Ruphus!

I've only seen a possum once on our property, but raccoons traipse around the outside of our house almost every night, even though we are rigorous about not leaving even a morsel of food outside. Learned the hard way about raccoons. Back in the 80s our then-cat arrived home one afternoon with a long laceration and a small chunk missing from her rear leg. I rushed her to the vet, who did the requisite repairs and said,"This is from a raccoon and your cat was running away." Many years later, when we had our next pair of cats, I was in the habit of leaving the deck door open all the time, even at night until I went to bed (you'd think I would have learned). Our deck is only accessible from the dining room, but had a small hole in its floor to allow the cats in and out. (Our present two cats are firmly indoor-only.) So one night I was at the computer and heard chowing down and munching in the kitchen and thought, "Hmmm, a bit late for the kitties to be eating", and went to check. Out raced a raccoon, who went through the deck door and turned right around, reared up on his hind legs and began hissing at me. This beautiful cuddly animal with the gorgeous fur coat looked like a grizzly at that moment. I edged forward, more hisses. Made a grab for the sliding door, shoved it shut. The raccoon turned around, waddled across the deck, and overturned a flower pot which he then proceeded to empty before going down the "rabbit hole".

I much prefer living here to that apartment in the center of Chicago where I grew up, but one does learn to respect Nature...

OH geez! I thought it was a long nose!

"The raccoon turned around, waddled across the deck, and overturned a flower pot which he then proceeded to empty before going down the "rabbit hole"."

O.K., see, that cracks me up -- vintage Rascal : )

Fly, I am always happy to crack you up, but who is Rascal?

Normally we enjoy the wildlife that is around us, but the possums are bad here. They've gotten into our garage and made a mess, and we'd had a squirrel nest in our rafters once. We moved that! And we had a TON of starlings, who would outcompete the other birds we were trying to attract. We also removed the area they were nesting and they haven't been back at all.

The problem we have is that our next door neighbor has created a habitat that is a serious vector issue. He's got things that hold water all summer, thus the mosquitos can get BAD at the corner of our driveway. And he's got these hummocks and places where the critters can nest. One of our cats is a terrific hunter and he's always getting rats from that guys house.

We've tried to contact the code enforcement authorities, but they won't do anything. Even though it's CLEAR in the ordinance he's violating almost every rule. This was pretty much the last straw for us, so we've taken pix of his back yard, you can see it clearly from the cul-de-sac behind our places. It's pretty horrendous. Since I work in Enforcement of civil issues, I know how to get this through the system. We don't want to be enemies with our neighbor, but this is just too far. He's unreasonable about this stuff, and has gone so far as to pick thru our garbage can (with DH's sort of approval) to glean what he thinks is useful.

I never wanted to go down that road with a neighbor, but now that we've verified that there is critters that are 'harmful' and considered vector, and with the way property values are lately, having his place look and be a danger, is something we can't ignore any longer.

When I lived in Wisconsin I has a possum in my garage once sleeping in an old tire next to the car. I called animal control and although they would not come and get him. they told me to turn on the lights and play loud rock music to make this place an unpleasant place to sleep. He left soon after I did this never to return.
Here in AZ the authorities are warning people not to have an Easter egg hunt outside and do not hide the eggs in high grass. Why? Snakes. Yowser.

sable, see below : )

And pesky, ugh -- such an Oregon situation. Picking through your trash?! By any chance is his house older and maybe your all's development was sold from a larger original property? I see these kinds of situations all over around here -- tension between two very different lifestyles caused by real estate development. Almost like choking out wildlife habitat, but it's wild-human habitat, iykwim...Great that you have the know-how to get it addressed.

Here is a link that might be useful: my FAVORITE book as a child -- I see so much more in it now, though

Fly, our houses were part of the original subdivision 50 plus years ago. He's quite the hoarder, I've actually been inside his house and it's like those TV shows. The only new builds have occurred in the last 10 years, and those are in the cul-de-sac behind us, so it's not an issue of old vs new here. No, his place is a GARBAGE HEAP and to top it off, he owns the house on the other side of his, it's filled to the brim with garbage inside, he can't even enter it! And down the street he owns an abandoned house that received so many complaints about it being a nuisance, the county required him to board it up.

It's plain squalor at his place. Here's what the back of his garage looks like. We can't see it unless we look over our fence, but the people behind him have a clear view.

This shot was taken from the part of our fence where Ruphus was standing. This is what is next to our house, but thankfully, we can't see it unless we're standing on a ladder.

That branch that is leaning on the fence is from his dead tree. It fell over, broke a piece of the fence and where the limb broke on our side, it knocked over a fountain I have there and broke it. DH had to clear the rubbish away and mentioned to him about the fountain, but he just shrugged and said it was on our side, so it was ours to deal with! I just told DH to let it go, I didn't want to fight with him about the fountain, but now...I am rethinking my position. HATE neighbor-neighbor feuds! But I can definitely see how they happen.

For some perspective, this is our backyard (it's an older picture, but you can see how it's positioned.) About 15 feet from the hottub gazebo is the fence line. The back of his garage is just about perpendicular with the hot tub.

Fly - Thank you for the link to Rascal. I've put the book in my "to order" book file. DGS is too young for the story now, but I'd like to read it myself and then eventually give it to him.

Pesky - That is just horrible, particularly when contrasted with your beautiful yard and deck. I'd be sick at heart living next door to a property like that. It makes our very mild disagreement with one set of neighbors fade into nothing much. I hope that you can prod the county into taking some measures. Surely harboring vermin is an actionable offense.

WOW that's serious. I can smell the rat nests from *here*, pesky. ugh ugh ugh...how the city refuses to do anything about that public hazard is beyond me. Maybe they're waiting for a pet to get bitten by rabid vermin?? (sarcasm). How can they ignore anything that looks like those photos? I just don't get it.

I wish you fast and effective luck in your pursuing it through the channels you know of.

And sable, glad to spread the word of "Rascal" -- he also wrote a book called "Raccoons are the Brightest People" which was in heavy rotation on my nightstand with the first-mentioned book.
http://www.amazon.com/Raccoons-Brightest-People-Sterling-North/dp/052518788X
REALLY worth reading along with "Rascal"; like the nonfiction version of it.

And re starlings: we have had an ongoing battle with them as they nest *right above* our front door every year, leaving poop-trails down our walk and driveway, across the court to one particular tree they always fly to...just constantly embarrassing, as no matter how often we cleaned the walk and the door, they'd mess it up again as soon as we were done. We tried putting metal mesh to block the entrance they'd been using--they pecked right through it, even though our contractor said it had always stopped starlings before.

I hated starlings until I found a book called "Arnie the Darling Starling" at Goodwill. I do agree with the criticisms of the author's care for the bird, but I will never look down my nose at starlings again (although of course I'll keep my mouth closed when I'm looking up at them : )).

(actually, I'm happy that that one negative [and correct, IMO] reviewer mentioned Linda Johns, because I now search or her books every time I go to GW. ONE of these days, one of these days...)

Here is a link that might be useful: O.K., they're cute too : )

Flyleft, "Rascal" was also a favorite of mine! I had the good fortune of meeting Sterling North's sister, Jessica McDonald, who knew my teacher (I think it was 5th grade or so) and came to speak to our class, as I grew up in Downers Grove where she lived. I had an autographed copy of Rascal, but my mom is not one to keep things, and I think the book went by the wayside when they sold their house after I moved out. Makes me sad to know the book is gone, but doesn't change what the book means to me.

So cool, Les! With any luck the autographed copy is in the hands of a person worthy of it. What did his sister talk about? Did she love Rascal too? I don't remember -- is she in the book? Ashamed to admit that specifics are a bit blurry at this point...