Sparky had not made his presence known for the last several nights until last night. My neighbor and I set a live trap to capture the rascal, and we used corn cobs for bait, which proved to be too much of a temptation for the interloper. I found our amiable little friend in a rather foul mood this morning as he was caged next to our little garden. I would be mad too if I had to spend the night in jail. It was really neat for my family and I to have such a close up look at a wild animal, although the opossum did not appreciate it much. He would sort of hiss and show his teeth when we got close to the cage. And just as everything I have read about native opossums said- he had short black ears, very long whiskers, and dark black forelegs. His tail was bald and grey; and he had long, yellow claws. He put off quite a stench as well. "He is stinky," said my daughter. Since my neighbor and I planned to let him go later that night into the woods I wanted to make him as comfortable as possible during the day. My daughter and I cut several small branches from the Red bud tree in our yard and draped them over the cage; and as a parent I felt good knowing the memories this experience was creating. We then collected pine cones and walnuts from a neighbors yard down the street and placed them around his cage so it would smell like the forest. I checked on him throughout the day and found him curled up sleeping most of the time, which made me feel good since he is a nocturnal animal and would naturally sleep during the day. I wanted the least amount of stress on him as possible. I am going to upload a short video I made with my camera which shows Sparky in his cage. What a neat day and great learning experience!-Stay Wild!
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