I was delighted to open my front door this afternoon and discover my little possum friend, who had mysteriously disappeared for a few weeks, hanging out in a tree. I was even more delighted to discover him nowhere near the chicken coop, in the front half of our land, nearly 1/4 mile away from the chicken coop. And since he hasn't been stealing eggs lately, perhaps this means that we can live together in harmony, after all. (Don't tell my husband, but I named him. Pedro. Pedro the Possum.)
We did do a couple of things to deter him:
- We are a lot more careful about leaving the chicken coop open when we are not around.
- We decided it was not a good time for Tock to have a nest of 21 eggs and growing, especially since she carelessly leaves them unattended for hours at a time (which means there is no way there are live chicks in them, at least not in this frigid weather). So we gathered all of her eggs, and dumped them back in the woods, for some random creature to feast on (perhaps our possum?).
- We now head out a few times a day to remove the eggs as quickly as possible. You know, to remove temptation and such. Besides, since our chickens started eating their own eggs, we have to be quick, anyway, if we want to have any eggs at all.
On a side note, I had this sneaking suspicion that my goofy cat, Ducky, who is a Friend to All Creatures (she loves to let our dog nibble all over her back and belly), was hanging out with the possum. I saw her behind the chicken coop a couple of times after I had just recently flung the possum over the fence back there. (That's Ducky in the photo, engaging in one of her most favorite pasttimes.) So can you guess who was hanging out in front of the house when I found the possum there? That's right, there was Ducky, not ten feet from the possum. Coincidence? Perhaps. I, however, prefer to think of them as buddies.... it does happen, you know....
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