Though I live in a densely populated suburb, we do still have pockets of woods and some streets nearby that have houses with large pieces of land. Still, I find it amusing that I’m having a problem with wildlife in my backyard.
A year ago, my neighborhood was besieged by wild coyotes. There were at least 4 incidents involving coyotes coming near people, and in one the animal might have been after a baby. I never saw one myself (and I like dogs, anyway). This year, my backyard has seen much activity from groundhogs (which are cute and seem to be very scared of humans) and opossum (which are very ugly and have many sharp teeth).
Last week, I went outside to water plants around 8:30 at night. I was startled to see my little pet pug face to face with an opossum! They were exactly the same size. I began yelling to get the dog inside, and tossed water on the opossum. It eventually ran under the deck. We haven’t let the dog out by herself at night since.
I’ve inspected below the deck for a possibly opossum home, but I don’t see one. Judging from the holes dug around my fenceposts, I think they are just travelling through my yard, as I don’t have anything they can eat. So I placed bricks in all the openings they created and covered them with dirt. They still got through!
Now it’s time for drastic measures: trapping it (or them) and releasing it (or them) into the woods. I called my township, and animal control only gets involved with dead or sick wild animals. So then I called a few private companies, and prices ranged from $275 to $425 to trap one or two animals! This sounded absolutely absurd to me.
So, I bought my own cage for $50. I'll set it myself and release the animal in an approved area. I’ll let you know what happens, and if my money-saving ways actually pay off.
A year ago, my neighborhood was besieged by wild coyotes. There were at least 4 incidents involving coyotes coming near people, and in one the animal might have been after a baby. I never saw one myself (and I like dogs, anyway). This year, my backyard has seen much activity from groundhogs (which are cute and seem to be very scared of humans) and opossum (which are very ugly and have many sharp teeth).
Last week, I went outside to water plants around 8:30 at night. I was startled to see my little pet pug face to face with an opossum! They were exactly the same size. I began yelling to get the dog inside, and tossed water on the opossum. It eventually ran under the deck. We haven’t let the dog out by herself at night since.
I’ve inspected below the deck for a possibly opossum home, but I don’t see one. Judging from the holes dug around my fenceposts, I think they are just travelling through my yard, as I don’t have anything they can eat. So I placed bricks in all the openings they created and covered them with dirt. They still got through!
Now it’s time for drastic measures: trapping it (or them) and releasing it (or them) into the woods. I called my township, and animal control only gets involved with dead or sick wild animals. So then I called a few private companies, and prices ranged from $275 to $425 to trap one or two animals! This sounded absolutely absurd to me.
So, I bought my own cage for $50. I'll set it myself and release the animal in an approved area. I’ll let you know what happens, and if my money-saving ways actually pay off.
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