The opossum story ...the long version

My cell phone rings, it’s 8:02PM Saturday night, I’m reading a book I just got at Barnes & Noble.

“There’s something in the house! It’s big and on the first floor it was just walking down the hall”

As I was putting on my sneakers I said “Okay”

“I don’t want to go downstairs. It’s a white grey in color”

“Is the back door unlocked?”

“I don’t want to go downstairs” I took this to mean possibly the door is locked. “Where are you?” she asked.

“At home”

“What can I do?” from the tone in her voice - nothing, I think.

“I’ll head right over”

“When are you coming?”

“Right now”

I grabbed my blue mini mag-lite, from beside my TV and a beach towel that I haven’t put away yet from my room. I go to the basement and get a pair of leather gloves, a moving blanket, and a drop cloth.

I got to the house in seven minutes, the back door was locked. I walk back to the front and try to call from my cell phone but her phone is busy, so I ring the bell.

I’m let in and I’m told “It’s on the second floor, in the family room, I shut the door to trap it in”

So I started to head upstairs after I untied the moving blanket and the drop cloth which had been tied and I’m asked “What are you going to do?” I saved the smart remark and just said “Get it out of the house.”

“What do you think it is?” I was asked.

“Well if it’s just walking about, it’s probably a opossum.”

“What if it’s a rat? You could be killed!” Again, I saved the smart remark.

“A rat isn’t going to kill me,” I said. If I were to be bitten by rat I would get to the hospital before the onslaught of death.

It was a opossum and a young one at that, I caught it using the beach towel. The towel was the most pliable so it could be moved around easily. I wrapped it up tight in the towel so it couldn’t move so it couldn’t bite me or squirm to get out, and I walked back down the stairs.

The house’s owner heard me coming down the stairs and asked “What are you doing?”

“I’m walking down the stairs.”

“Do you have anything?”

“Yes, …It’s a opossum.”

I tried to explain that I needed something to put the towel into that would hold the towel tightly so I could transport the little fellow to a different location. There was still this state of panic so I grabbed an emptied out file box walked back upstairs and put the drop cloth in the box to hold things secure, and tried to grab all the stuff I walked in with.

I was asked to call to let her know what I ended up doing.

I started to drive away to some far location and I started to worry that the opossum couldn’t breath too much longer the way I had it packed so I drove home. I thought a death sentence for just wandering into someone's home was a little severe.

My tenant has a small animal trap she uses for catching stray cats so she can get them fixed. The cage is kept in the yard by her trash barrels, I grabbed it and gently dumped the opossum into it. The opossum was fine but it wasn’t digging the cage. I didn’t want to spook it anymore than I already had so I pointed the cage away from my house and opened the door. He disappeared into the dark of my yard. The time was 8:26PM.

I called my friend back to let her know what I did and to let her know that I left my mini mag-lite at her house.

“What if it gets into your house? Now that it has your scent?” I was asked.

“I don’t think he going to be dropping by for any visits”

...

I took a bat, the flying little animal kind, from her house once, when she lived in a different house. That’s was scary because you can’t hear a bat coming and you know ...they fly. I caught the bat with a trout net.