Possum Kingdom

A few months ago, I woke up at about 6:00am to a sound from my cat that was like nothing I'd heard out of her. It was like the scream a cartoon cat makes when someone steps on its tail on The Simpsons or something, only louder. After making this horrible racket, Yusuke jumped away from my window and sat growling, facing me but sneaking glances back at the blinds. Once I'd gathered my wits, I got up and looked outside, but there was nothing there. I walked out into the living room and looked out other windows facing the same area, but whatever it was had beat a hasty retreat. I did notice, however, that the gate to the path leading back behind our place was open, and I thought I heard voices talking in the parking lot out front. My instincts said they had a dog, which they'd let roam through the gate and back to my window, where my cat likes to sit and look out sometimes, scaring the bejeesus out of her.

I recommended to my roommate that we start keeping the gate closed, which we hadn't been too observant about doing to that point. So we did. But within the week, it happened again: same scream, same waking up at 6:00am, same nothing there. This time, however, when I checked the gate, sure enough, it was closed. No dog could have fit through the grating of our gate or otherwise gotten to our back patio. My new theory was that we had a possum or raccoon, and I was right. Within a week, I came home to find my roommate showing me a digital picture he'd taken of a possum on our back fence.

What do you do about a possum if you live in a city? I had no idea. Luckily, this marsupial menace hasn't caused my cat alarm to go off again since, but in the last two days, two things have happened that make me uneasy. First, yesterday I watched a cat jump down into our patio area from the very same fence the possum was on. It had tags, and seemed to just be curious about this corner of the neighborhood. However, our gate being closed, I wondered how it planned to get out again. The only route I could see was a tree whose branches reached over to the neighbor's patio. The fence was a shear six-foot drop on this side. I brought Yusuke out to the glass door where the other cat was sitting outside on the sidewalk and set her down. Right on cue, once she saw it she started growling. A few minutes later I watched this cat jump straight up to the top of the fence from the ground, gain its balance, then cross over to the other side and disappear. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since one of the cats we had when I was a child was able to jump up and catch birds off the birdfeeder we hung from our clothesline, but still, at least that cat didn't grab hold of the feeder, he just came straight back down to earth.

The second thing happened just a few minutes before I started writing this. While a plumber was working on the tub, I heard at least two of our neighbors' dogs barking and looked outside. There on the fence was the same possum from the picture P had shown me. I took some pictures while the dogs continued going nuts, and the possum just sat there staring at me with its beady black eye. It occurred to me that if the dogs could catch the possum, our problem would be solved, so I came inside and got a broom, then went out to try and knock the possum off the fence. But as I got close, the broom handle maybe six inches from it, and the thing just sat there, mouth slightly open in its clown-white face, I couldn't do it. I thought I could see the fear in its expression at the thought of being torn to pieces by dogs, not a pretty thought. Also, I found a dead parakeet in the parking lot earlier today. Anyway, the possum lives to see another day. Hopefully, it'll take the hint and move on to someone else's yard.