We're Caught In a Trap...

Elvis Presley sang a song called, "Suspicious Minds" that started with the following lyrics:

We're caught in a trap

I can't walk out

Because I love you too much baby

Why can't you see

What you're doing to me

When you don't believe a word I say?

I found myself singing that song this afternoon and you'll soon know why.  After catching 6 rats in 5 days in a trap I set in the garden, I stopped catching them.  Perhaps I caught all the ones that were venturing into the garden, but I saw two in the barn the other evening.  I figured I would mix things up a little bit and move the trap into the barn to thin out the population there.  Actually, I want to do more than thin them out - I want to eradicate them.  This morning at 5:30 a.m. when I flipped on the lights in the barn, this is what I found:

"I'm caught in a trap.  I can't walk out..."

Not a rat.  A medium sized possum.  He was not happy.  He hissed at me with an open mouth like possums like to do.  While I do want to catch and kill all the rats, I have no qualms about catching and killing all the possums, too.  Since this guy is medium-sized, I know there is a Momma Possum and a Daddy possum out there.  I've re-baited the trap with 'Ol Roy dog food and we'll see if we continue being successful in our trapping.

"Why can't you see, what you're doin' to me?"

I dealt with our captive swiftly and humanely and he found himself amended into our garden soil where his remains will provide nutrients that will grow possum flavored green beans this spring.  Catching the possum also answered a mystery.  One afternoon this week I walked out to the pasture and saw the following: 

If you look closely, you can see a bunch of feathers from a Rhode Island Red hen.  I didn't find a carcass, so he wasn't successful in killing the hen, but the next time the predator comes around, our hen might not be so fortunate.  Maybe the possum in the trap was the guilty party.  Me and the Rhode Island Red hopes so.