Opossum...the city version

On Tuesday night, I let Gus out to do his business and I heard him bark a few times. I know, this shouldn't be odd...he's a dog. I get it. However, Gus is a special dog. He only barks at dogs on TV (the Star Wars themed VW commercial has us holding our ears), and whimpers when he hears a dog on the other side of the fences (big or small, he wants to play with them all). 


So, when I heard him bark a few times that evening, I checked to see what was going on. I looked out the back door to see Gus actually doing his Scottie thing...getting after vermin. There was a rather large opossum on the top of the fence, and Gus was waiting underneath to see what was going to happen next. Although he does have his rabies shots, I wasn't really as anxious as Gus to see what would unfold. 


Since he tends to mind Kyle a little better than me (and I wasn't going near the opossum to physically pick Gus up), I had Kyle go get him. Kyle got Gus in the house and then I saw him walking back towards the fence with the Swiffer sweeper I had set outside earlier. At first I thought he was just going to shoo the opossum into the neighbor's yard...but then I realized that was not what was taking place. Kyle successfully killed it with a 3 pound, aluminum pole...which is now broken and in the trash. Afterward, I reminded him that we have a heavy-duty shovel in the garage.


I think what makes this so funny for Kyle and myself, is that we both grew up in the country. There, you don't kill things with aluminum poles. A shotgun is typically the weapon of choice depending, of course, on the target.  Growing up (and coming back for visits) I have often been woken in the middle of the night by the sound of a shotgun or rifle being fired from the front porch in an attempt to eliminate coyotes that got too close to the house and/or barn. One time when I had come home to visit after having lived in Tulsa for a while, I told my Dad that I would appreciate being woken and told he was about to shoot something. I was going to be woken anyway, I'd rather know it was him shooting versus being shot. How great would that sound on a police report?..."Yes officer, I heard the shots being fired 6 hours ago, but I thought it was coyotes being shot, not my folks".


Anyway, we both have a few different firearms in our house, but we didn't think shooting them inside the city limits, not to mention the neighbor's house 30 ft. away, would be a good idea. Aluminum pole it was. 


I know this makes us sound like hicks, but the truth is, there are a lot of creatures that are over-populated and end up causing damage. Opossums, fox, coyotes, raccoons, snakes, wild hogs... will kill small farm animals (chickens, rabbits, sheep, calves, etc.) and raid trash and feed bins. I just realized that the animals that people from Arkansas and Louisiana eat are predators of the animals I eat. Just kidding...sort of.


Kyle's comment regarding the opossum..."Anything that ugly has to be from the Devil"