One night my wife, Carla, and I got home late. It was dark, but the cats and rabbits still needed feeding. She drove me to the barn and waited in the van. I opened the barn door to feed cats. I heard it before I saw it. A critter scampered over a gate. I could tell it wasn’t a raccoon. It was worse than a raccoon — it was a opossum.

I yelled. If there is a critter more detestable than a raccoon, it’s a opossum. It’s long, weasel-looking nose and slimy tail make my skin crawl. Fortunately, it scampered out the other door.

I finished feeding, slid the heavy sheet of plywood over the rubber water tank serving as a feed bin, and went to the car.

“Wow, that was creepy,” I said.

“What, was something wrong?” Carla asked.

“Yes, a creepy opossum was inside. Didn’t you hear me yell?”

2nd battle

That next morning, I found something amiss. The plywood tank lid was a few inches off-center. A critter was the guilty party. No feed bags were damaged. That was the first time ever that something had budged the plywood top. So, that evening, I put a concrete block on the plywood.

Was it raccoon or opossum? I don’t know. I hate them both — just hate opossums a bit more.

Nothing happened for a couple of nights. Then one morning, the concrete block was on the floor. Had I forgotten to put it on the lid, or did the suckers push it off? Either way, they clawed into the unopened cat food bag inside the tank and helped themselves.

When Carla tells people our animals are spoiled, she means it. Not only are the rabbits and cats spoiled, so are the wild critters. I put several ears of corn just outside the barn for them to eat. No, they haven’t touched an ear. They strongly prefer cat food.

They haven’t been back in the feed bin again. That’s probably because I now put two heavy concrete blocks on top each night!