Wood Chucks, Opossums and Baby Sisters

A sister blogger, Jean from Misadventures of Widowhood, posted about her misadventures with a Wood Chuck.  How do city people get rid of such a nuisance?  You can't very well shoot the thing.  You can't really send the dog out to chase it away.  Wood Chucks are notorious for carrying rabies.

It all made me laugh and remember an instance, when I lived in a city and my neighbor had such a problem--only it was a Possum.

Across the street neighbor called my house mate Ernie.  "Come quick!  There's a big rat sitting on the chain link fence and I'm afraid to let the dogs out!"

Ernie scampered across the street and came back to tell me.

"Phyllis has a Possum sitting on her fence.  I don't know how to get rid of it.  It won't move!"

I said, "Get a shovel and pound it on the head to kill it.  That should take care of the problem."

"Kill it?  I don't want to kill it."

"Well you can't leave it there.  Phyllis won't let the dogs out and she will be calling you every twenty minutes to do something."

"Yeah, but.........my Dad told me once that if I were ever lost in the woods, I could kill a Possum and cook the meat and I wouldn't starve."

"Really?  Good advice I suppose.  BUT--number one, you aren't lost, number two, you aren't in the woods, and number three...you aren't starving.  You have to get rid of the Possum.  Hit the dang thing over the head with the shovel and everything will be as before."

"Maybe I could live trap it and take it out to your Dad's farm and release it?"

"Ah--no.  In the first place, that is against the law.  In the second place, my Dad has enough Possums, he doesn't want anymore."

He went outside and I saw him walk across the street, big shovel in hand.  I listened.  I heard the "whang, whang" of shovel meeting chain link fence--twice.

Twice?  Must have missed the first time.

Then I saw him walking back across the street, holding the dead Possum, out at arms length, by its tail.

"Now what do I do with it?"

"Put it a garbage bag and throw it in the freezer in the garage.  Then on garbage pick-up day, put it in the garbage pail.  The garbage men won't even know and the Possum won't care."

Ernie actually had tears in his eyes and later, bad dreams about his Possum hunt.

I have been known, while driving on country roads, to nearly put my car in the ditch trying to run down Possums and Wood Chucks!!  However, I'd stop in traffic to save a Turtle, so I'm not all bad!
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My little sister and her hubs stopped in today. on their way home from Brighton.  My sister had a back tooth extracted and she had to change the gauze 20 minutes out from her surgery.  She didn't want to be sedated, (silly girl), so she was still shaking from the whole experience.

She was so precious.  I just wanted to take her on my lap and soothe her and rock her in the rocking chair.  Her first extraction.  She acted like she had had a major operation.  

She waited another half hour, changed the gauze again and then they beat it for home--a 35 minute drive.

I doubt she will have any pain when the Novocaine wears off, other then where she got the shots.  Her jaw is probably going to hurt more from the way she was clenching her teeth down on that gauze pad.  

She was going straight home, take her pain pills and go to bed!  Lord a Mercy.  I hope she never has to have a knee or hip replacement.  HAH