I'm not sure which is worse....
bad company that just won't leave,
or bad company that keeps coming back.
Yup, you got it.
Solomon returned.
Or possumably it was someone new who just looked a whole lot like Solomon.
Either way...something was awry in the henhouse.
Two hens had refused to bunk down in their house the previous night...
opting for sleeping outdoors instead (the first and best indicator that bad company was present.)
Sunday morning when Hubbs opened the henhouse,
he checked all of the nesting boxes,
and sure as shootin'...
there was ole Solomon staring back at him with his 50 sharp little teeth
and egg on his face.
Literally.
He had just finished sucking the innards out of a freshly laid egg.
(Hence the goo on his nose.)
I have become quite proficient at opossum extraction,
I gently nudged him toward the overturned garbage can...
and he willingly obliged....crawling as far away from me as he could.
Gotcha!
Hubbs put a lid on it...just for transporting purposes.
Naturally, the girls were relieved to see this fellow relocated.
This time we took no chances and drove the little marsupial 4 miles away...
to a peaceful wooded area over the next ridge.
I tried to get a photo of him exiting the can...but he lept out of it like
being shot out of a cannon....
heading for the safety of the woods.
I don't think we will be seeing this fellow again.
As for Hubbs' theory that Solomon had found his way back home from a mile away...
I looked back at the pictures of Solomon (#1 and #2).
I am quite sure that this particular opossum (#3) had to be Mortimer,
a distant cousin...
on his Father's side, of course!
Note:
Prior to the first time I had caught Solomon,
we had noticed that these hens were only laying about 4 eggs daily (collectively).
After Solomon had been relocated, we started getting between 12 and 20 eggs daily.
Old Solomon had evidently been feasting on eggs!
No wonder he came back for round #2.
Apparently the word is out...
Smorgasbord at Bee Haven Acres!
Comments
Kathy from Tasmania
In the middle of a harsh storm very windy , cold and snow falling and blowing around today . Thanks for sharing . Have a good day !
Not only not pretty but scary too!