The Great White Opossum Hunter arrived shortly after I posted Part 1 of the story.
After the less than stellar performance of Joe Allen, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, and somewhat relieved, to open the door and see a professional young man in a crisp, starched uniform standing there.
This was Jerry, and he looked like a park ranger.
He got down to business and he really knew his stuff. He examined the entry space and rattled off countless opossum facts. He retrieved a ladder from his truck, which I could see was loaded with traps and all kind of critter paraphernalia. He was about to ascend into the attic when he turned to me and said...
"Now, you're gonna hear me talking to myself. I have a little flip cam and I'm going to be recording my observations and I can show you when I get back down. I wouldn't want you to think I was crazy or anything."
Yeah, we wouldn't want that.
As he climbed up the ladder he added...
"I also post all the videos on YouTube..."
I think "crazy" just went back on the table as an option.
He was up there quite awhile and I could hear him murmuring as he roamed all over the house. When he got back down we huddled to look at what he saw.
It was your classic "good news, bad news" scenario, emphasis on the "bad news".
The good news? There was probably only the one opossum. They're solitary animals, Jerry said. He'd put out some traps and we should have him or her in a couple of days. It may take longer only because the weather turned frigid and the opossum may choose to stay hidden until it warms up a bit.
And then the bad news...
While there is probably only the one opossum, he probably isn't the first. This house sat vacant for so long, he or she may just be the last in a long line of occupants. The bottom line is that large portions of the attic have up to 6 inches of opossum poop in it! And it would appear opossums aren't quite as solitary as we thought. He or she seem to have a large number of rat friends! And they've pooped everywhere too!
Bottom line - our attic is one big Haz Mat zone and it isn't going to be cheap to fix it.
I wasn't happy, to say the least.
Jerry set up three traps near the entry point, near our front door. He baited them with dry cat food.
"Now... you'll probably end up trapping some of the neighborhood cats" he explained nonchalantly.
Oh great. Well, the dogs will enjoy that part. They won't be happy to discover it's "catch and release".
He showed me how to spring the cage and free any wayward felines. Or dogs. Later that night, when we returned from our walk, my littlest dog just about snared herself going after the cat food. She'll eat anything.
So now it's a waiting game, waiting for the banshee scream of a trapped opossum in the dead of the night.
And then we get to deal with the toxic nightmare upstairs.
Remind me again the benefits of home ownership?
