Opossum in the trap. They are fools for cat food so I guess he ignored the coon gore and waltzed in. Probably not a linen table cloth kind of diner anyway...
Possums only live about 2 1/2 years and look pretty ragged by the end of the second year. This one was young and fresh. Probably born a few months ago. He gave me the gaping teeth look but I just shook him out of the trap and re-set it. Possums are all bluff until they start playing dead. I picked him up by the tail and put him on a treetrunk. He finally wandered off.
I think marsupials are just a little embarrassed about being left behind in the evolutionary wars.
A few years ago I caught the same two foxes repeatedly. They never seemed to catch on. Both of them developed big scabs on the top of their noses from trying to escape through a one-inch square in the wire.
Or maybe catfood is worse than crack for foxes. At any rate:"Smart as a Fox" isn't saying much.
Black Vultures and Turkey vultures are busy over the remains of coon number two. If I get number three the war may be over, or I may push for four.
No photos on the camera. It just sits there like an idiot until I walk up. The latest smart tech...and it's about possum level.
enjoying the stories
I've been enjoying the stories. My only experience with hav-a-heart traps has been to catch feral kitties, and of course we didn't shoot them. I've hosted a cat that was clever enough to lift up a vent screen and escape into my ductwork, only to emerge late at night to use the litter box. Of course when the dry kibble was withheld for only one day I easily trapped him again in my house using soft food.
The one trick I learned was that some of the box traps would release if the critter inside if it rolled the trap upside down. To fix this, I zip-corded a pallet plank to the bottom to keep it from rolling over.
The cat? He got fixed, and had his ear trimmed to show he was being managed, and then released. He was far too wild to make an adoptable pet out of.
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Standard Mischief
My evil black rifle kills fascists. I'm not sure how much luck you are going to have with that guitar.