Possum Adventures

Usually, we’ll get one or two possums per year. In the last six months, I have caught and dispatched four. Or so I thought.

Typically, after I trap one, I’ll put a couple of 22LR bullets into its head/neck/forward torso area, depending on its position in the trap. After it quits kicking, I’ll then dump it out into the edge of the woods. It turns out that they are very resilient creatures. 

After last night’s experience, I think we had our usual one possum this year. It just escaped death three times. Maybe eating my cat food gives them nine lives.

After I caught it and went through the usual procedure, I checked the camera to see how long it had been in the trap before I noticed and triggered the door to close. It was 0430, I was exhausted and reading a book to stay awake and never saw it approach. On the camera playback, I noticed that it had an awkward gait as it crossed the deck, favoring its right front appendage. You know, as if it had been shot in the shoulder and managed to heal instead of die.

I went back outside where I’d left it for dead with the usual two bullet holes in the front part of its body. I’d brought the shotgun out with me, planning to put a round of buckshot in it as an insurance shot. I found it very alive and trying to crawl away. So it got two rounds of 00 buck to convince it that continuing to draw breath wasn’t an option. The very dead body was still there this afternoon when I came to work.

Going forward, I’ll do the shoot and dump with the 22 as in the past, then switch to the 12-gauge and guarantee that it’s really dead instead of playing possum.