Never a Dull Moment....

This past weekend, we ventured to Columbus to do some yard work at my house.  Got to the house just before dark, put the dogs in the fenced-in backyard and unloaded the truck.  Wanted to do a survey of what all needed done so we joined the dogs in the backyard.  I don't precisely remember who noticed what was going on, but the dogs were barking and trying to attack something in the corner of the fence.

Got the four dogs in the house, grabbed a flashlight and went to investigate.

That's what the dogs were 'playing' with.  I'm quite respectful of animals that could be potential carriers of rabies (and upon discovering the opossum, my mind flashed back to the zoonotic disease class I had taken for my Masters....). 

I look back at various situations in my life and wonder how I didn't get rabies (e.g. removing the bat in our fireplace with no gloves on.... chasing a raccoon around my parents' front yard when I was about 10--ended up calling the police who came out, shot it and then told me to dig a hole and bury it with copious amounts of bleach poured on the carcass....).  Rabies isn't something to mess around with and upon further investigation of the opossum-- his tail was bloody.  Great.  The dogs somehow had gotten a hold of the thing.

The fence in my backyard is a 6' privacy fence... the boards are close together so there was no option of shooing this guy through the fence (plus, he was playing dead... so I don't really think we would have been successful in getting the thing to move). 

Could have let it go till morning but our fear was that he would hide out under the deck and become a permanent resident in the yard.

Unacceptable. 

Enter: creative problem sovling.  Went into the garage and grabbed my snow shovel and a rake.  Luckily the opossum was terrified and "playing 'possum" so he was easy to push onto the snow shovel with the rake.  The girls were standing on the deck and asked if they could see the critter.  With the fear of it running away being slim-to-none, we paused for a moment to show them the opossum.  After a few seconds of "gross!" and "that thing is so ugly!", we carried him to a wooded area near the house and 'released' him.