Procyon lotor or Didelphis virginiana lives under the house.
Either a raccoon or opossum dozes quietly during the day somewhere in the dirt crawlspace covering 1,100 square feet.
Fudge, the dark-chocolate Labrador retriever, knows it’s there. He can smell the critter’s spore emanating from the entry point just outside the backyard gate.
There are no overt signs of coon or possum. Just the daily nocturnal pushback of a board blocking the crawlspace opening.
Nobody wants the $200 offered to enter the crawlspace and liquidate the trespasser with a pellet gun or slingshot.
Smart thinking. Coons and possums have vicious teeth and claws and will attack if cornered.
The only remedy left is to put mothballs or a pan of bleach under the house. That’s supposed to irritate coons, but possums just might eat or drink the stuff.
Then again, leave it alone as a gesture to the homeless. (22 JUNE 2008)
