After a week of keeping traps out and baited, we have caught no skunk.
But we have trapped opossums six times. I don’t know if there are six possums living under the deck or if there are just two really stupid ones that don’t seem to learn from past mistakes. Either way, I’ve called the trapper guy to come out and whisk off the two I found trapped this morning. They can go be stupid somewhere else.
The real kicker today didn’t concern the possums or the skunk. Sister S had been concerned for her cat. Sister B had her dog spend the night Saturday, and S was worried that her cat might run off.
Most of yesterday cat was no where to be seen. Even after dog went back home, cat remained missing.
This morning, cat was not stationed outside the bathroom door, waiting for sister S to finish her morning ablutions. Cat did not come running for breakfast when the can of Friskies was opened.
“Tom? I’m worried about the cat,” she said finally, before heading off to school.
“Why?”
“She hasn’t shown up this morning. She usually comes in for breakfast. I haven’t seen her all night.”
“Well, I’m sure she’ll turn up. We saw her yesterday when the dog was here,” I said, trying to be reassuring without giving in to the possibility of her freaking out.
“I guess so…”
She gathered her things and headed out, shutting and locking the door behind her.
Not two minutes later, she came back in.
“I found the cat. She’s in one of the traps.”
“Oh, jeez…” I got up and got my shoes on and headed out the front door.
She’d finally gotten herself trapped, like I was worried she’d do three years ago.
I approached the trap in the front. Sure enough, out of the trap droned the most pitiful sound: “YOWL! YOWL! YOWL! YOWL!”
“Hold on, kitty. I got you,” I said, lifting the mechanism and opening the door. She shot out of it like a fuzzy black howitzer shell, still yowling repeatedly, before she disappeared under the back fence.
I came back inside and told my wife. Then yowly cat could be heard again, this time from inside the garage, where she sat in front of her cat door, no doubt terrified that it too could be another trap.
I’m sure it’ll be another year of re-training before she starts using small, hinged-door entrances again.
I hope the skunk is gone.
LOL! The cat was too funny. She had to tell us all about it. I haven’t seen her all morning. I think she is sleeping on sister S’s bed.
(Hubby) Ewww. Sister S’s bed will need a healthy dose of Febreeze, given the heady aroma of that trap she no doubt has all over her fur: rancid cat food and wet possum.
Poor kitty, she is not the sharpest knife in the rack is she? Still she is able to manipulate humans into opening the door for her so…..
Your house seems to be a hotbed of various kinds of activity. Am I up for all that? We shall see…
Love, the other Grandma
I vote you find her one of those little kitty Halloween costumes of a skunk. That would be awesome.
You should have just shot the possums. They are nasty creatures. I hope the skunk is gone.
Once my neighbor told me his cat was gone for 2 days and asked if I had seen it. I hadn’t but later when doing some work under the house I found that the inside of the door had been clawed into about 1000 splinters. A few days earlier I had left the door open for a while for some reason or another. Apparently I trapped the cat for a few days by accident. We were gone for the weekend so I wasn’t home to hear the cries for help.
(MD) Otter, your Arkansas is showing. I wouldn’t mind shooting the possums if they allowed that sort of thing within the homeowner’s association area, let alone Washington County Oregon. My daughters probably would not be too happy with me if I did, though. Oregon isn’t so much known for hunting as it is for environmentalists.
Poor cat…first the dog, then the trap. She may need the services of a kitty shrink!