Trap worked overtime after Big Daddy opossum walked in

By John Toth

The Bulletin

The opossum was taking it easy in the trap, trying to figure out what would happen next. It looked at me as I neared the trap, as if asking, “Why did you have to put that bowl of cat food in here?”

“That’s a big one,” commented my neighbor, Amelia Obregon, whom I called over to see if she could take the critter to the woods, where the rest of his gang were waiting for him. I have done it many times, but it was Wednesday, a busy production day at The Bulletin.

I lifted the trap and realized that this was no ordinary opossum. It was Big Daddy, weighing in at 36 lbs. This opossum was so fat that it could barely turn around in the trap. It didn’t look like it had missed too many meals, if any.

I don’t know about anywhere else in the city, but my area is opossum and racoon country. They roam around at night from house to house and load up on cat food left outside.

Opossums are not really any nuisance, but they have been too busy multiplying. In the last two months, we have trapped 15 and relocated them to the country, where they can live happily years after. They are calm and polite in the trap. For the most part, they accept their fate.

I had one that lived under my shed for years until contractors started demolishing the shed. As they pulled up the flooring, the opossum finally made an attempt to move somewhere else. I guess we disturbed its sleep.

It jumped out as the contractors pried away the last board, and the frightened “country” critter rushed towards the fence. I felt sorry for it. Had I known it was under the shed, I would have stopped demolition and would have tried to trap it at night. I also felt sorry for the contractor, who got a surprise that he didn’t expect. He recovered after a few minutes.

The opossum didn’t hurt him. He just got a bad scare. Opossums really can’t do much to defend themselves. I had one that played dead in the middle of my yard. It even had a little blood oozing from its mouth. I went inside to get a shovel to try to move it. When I returned, it was gone.

Even though opossums appear to be scary or “rabid” if they are cornered or threatened, they really are quite harmless. Being the slow-moving creatures that they are, their only defense is to pretend.

Rabies is extremely rare in opossums, perhaps because they have a much lower body temperature compared to other warm-blooded animals. They also eat a lot of fleas and ticks, mice, snakes and other vermin.

If you’re worried about them hurting your pets, don’t. They are docile, non-aggressive animals and will not attack your pets. They prefer to avoid confrontations. If escape is not possible, then the threatened opossum may “play ‘possum”, show its teeth, or bite in self-defense, as any animal would.

Racoons are more rambunctious. One big one dragged the trap across our yard. We thought that someone stole it, until we looked way over to the left side of the yard.

While raccoons are generally calm creatures, they can become aggressive under certain circumstances. Even when raccoons aren’t aggressive, close contact with them can put you at risk. They also can carry rabies, so stay away from them.

“That’s the biggest one we’ve trapped,” I said while loading the trap and opossum into Amelia’s car. We took pictures, and then it was time to transport Big Daddy to the country.

We have seen another opossum in the backyard since then, but I think we thinned out the herd enough for a while. I don’t mind a couple, but before we started trapping them, it was like an assembly line every night. The racoons came first and then the opossums.

One night, I looked out my office window and saw three raccoons play-fighting by the front door. They were pretty young and pretty noisy, but also pretty cute. I think we trapped at least a couple and relocated them to areas where they won’t wake up anyone at night.

Opossums don’t do that. They tip-toe around our backyard bench, right into the trap. And when we wake up and go to check on them, they just look at us, as if asking: “Why did you have to do that?”