Tag Archives: ‘Possum!

How to catch a cat

We used to have a neighbor who was somewhat less than “whole”.  She had a real passion for animals…well, for collecting animals; not so much for taking care of them.  Fast forward a few years and she has moved away, and, in fact, her house was torn down.  The animals remain and we have grown somewhat attached to some of them.  Just so you get a picture of what I mean, we have had as many as 13 cats on our side porch…none of which was ours.

There are fewer now and we have captured the ones that are tame and had them fixed.  I guess we should have taken them all to the pound but there are a few that are good cats and nice to pet when we are out in the yard.  They stay outside and keep the varmints at bay.  There are a number of cats that are feral, and as it is now spring, pregnant.  We do not need a dozen more cats around here so we plan to trap the feral ones and take them to the pound.  I have a few box traps so this seemed like an easy task.  I baited two traps with canned cat food and walked away.

I checked the traps periodically through the day and only succeeded in catching one of the tame/fixed cats…three times.  I can’t tell if he is smart or dumb.  Dumb to keep getting caught or smart because he filled his belly with good food, knowing that we would just release him.  Anyhow, I set them again and forgot about it until morning.  I checked the trap Sunday and sure enough, I caught another cat…a real wild one!

'possum caught in a trap
(hint: that’s not really a cat)

I took this one out to the woods and let him go.  He didn’t stick around for pleasantries which suited me just fine!