Catching the Possum

My roommates had described seeing this animal before and this had to be the animal that was living in my house. After some research I learned that possums typically live in crawl spaces of houses and climb around in the walls at night.  I was now determined to move this possum it could no longer live in my house. I did not want to kill the possum like Fredrick (the mouse) so I decided to set up a trap. My “genius” neighbors has the idea of setting up a trap made out of peanut butter and hotdogs. This could definitely work the hotdog would attract the possum and the peanut butter would catch the possum but making it’s fur sticking.  The next night I set out the trap, when I returned in the morning I found all the peanut butter was licked away and the hotdog was gone. The possum was smarter than me. Instead of a normal possum roaming around my house I now have a sticky one.

The Beast

“Scratch, scratch, scratch,” this is the constant noise I hear in my house every night. At first I thought maybe it was my roommate doing something in her room or it was the air conditioning. After a while I started to notice the noise more and quickly found out that the noise was not coming from the air condition or my roommate. The noises I had been hearing was coming from some sort of beast that was living in my house.  The animal lived in our second floor crawl space. The creature had been cohabitating with us for a few months and was living off my roommate’s shoes and extra clothes that were stored in the crawl space. I could live with nats and cockroaches and mice but I could not adjust to living with an animal that weighed more than twenty pounds.  One night when I was on my back deck I noticed two little shiny objects staring at me. These objects happened to be two sets of eyes. I stood up to gain a better view of the animal. The animal appeared to weigh around forty pounds, had a grey furr coat, and a long pink tail. I googled the description of the animal and discovered that the animal was a possum.

Mice, Cockroaches, and nats

There are many cures on Pintrest for how to get rid of different types of animals that reside in our homes. Trust me I have tried them all…and they DO NOT WORK. For instance the oh so common tip that vinegar in a cup will attract nats and kill them. This is false, you will be left with the constant smell of vinegar and cups located all around the house. I can typically deal with most animals but for some reason my house has an over abundance of them. Everytime a light is turned on their will be the black spots that glide across the wall or floor. No worries it’s just a cockroach. At first this scared me how could I live with these disgusting bugs but after a while I grew to accept the fact that the cockroaches were around to stay. No matter how many types of bug spray or homemade contraptions I made on Pinterest the cockroaches just were not leaving. After finally adjusting to the cockroaches I began to notice little brown drops all over the kitchen and near certain holes in the wall. After a few more weeks I discovered that I was living with mice. I could deal with cockroaches but mice was just unacceptable. I quickly called my landlord who brought over mice traps one week later. In this one week span of waiting for the traps I began to accept the one mouse that would come out and chill on the ground near me as I was watching television. My roommate and I decided we would name the mouse Fredrick. This was our first issue naming an animal automatically makes you attached to them. The next week we set out all the mouse traps not thinking about how these traps could potentially kill our new friend, Fredrick. After returning home from work one day I noticed Fredrick was stuck the trap and was struggling to live. This immediately broke my heart. I had to save Fredrick. I tried scrapping him off the trap but was only making matters worse.  I decided to have my roommate run over with her car to end his suffering. We felt terrible for him and made a proper grave out of toothpick in the front yard.

Move-In Day

My excitement quickly turned into panic after entering the house. I am not really sure how to describe the condition of the house but just imagine a house that has been used by a fraternity for seven years and has never been cleaned up. There was broken furniture, old clothes/rags, beer can, and cigarette butts everywhere. The house had the lovely smell of urine and beer. This was not the house I remembered touring in April. As I held the key to my new home I thought to myself there is absolutely no way I can live here. I called my parents who were coming down the next day to move me in they did not believe me when I described how bad of shape the house was in. When my parents came in the next day they tried to be optimistic but realized that this task of cleaning up the house was going to be large of a task for them. We immediately called my landlord and pulled out the lease stating that the house needed to be in livable condition. We agreed that there was a large amount of work that needed to be done. Just to get things straight my landlord is a slumlord so maybe only half the items on the to do list were completed. After moving a few pieces of furniture in and painting over the red paint in my room. I began to see the potential in the house. After a few week I started to fall in love with the house. It wasn’t about the condition of the house it was all about the people that live in the house and the memories that are made their. Not to be sappy but this house is something I won’t forget from the hazement (it’s actually our basement) to Fredrick the mouse some of my favorite memories in college have taken place in this house.