First Blood

We drew first blood tonight. It was around 10:30 or so, when we returned home from a night on the town. Had a nice Italian dinner, and saw Jersey Boys. Excellent show. Not your typical musical, more a concert with narration.

Anyway, I let Abby out to do her business and go to close up the chicken coop. I hear her barking, but I collect the eggs, and check on the girls first. Everything looked fine in there. So I close up the door, and swing the light over to where Abby is barking. I can see she is barking at something, but I couldn't tell what it was, or which side of the fence it was.

I swing around our shed and see that she is barking at a rather large possum. I scream and yell at her, INSIDE, INSIDE, IN, IN. She does her normal, I hear ya, but I want to bark at this thing. When the possum bared it's teeth, I hit the fence with our Maglite. That got Abby's attention off the possum and onto me. She reluctantly followed me inside. I ran to my office and got my wife's Ruger 10/22. I had just loaded some magazines yesterday in hopes of getting the rabbit that's been hanging around our tender, tasty garden.

So, I roll onto the deck, pop the magazine into the rifle, and, holding the maglite with the fore-end of the rifle line my shot up. The first crack didn't seem to effect it. I lined up carefully then, let my breath out, and CRACK. The possum went skidding end over end, landing under the sheds door. I put another one into it, just to be sure.

Shelly came out and held the light as we made our way over to the shed. I poked it with the end of the rifle and it seemed to squirm. I backed up, and put two more shots into it. It was dead now, and muscle contractions caused it to do a little dance on the ground. Gloves, a shovel and a rake later, and it was deposited into the corn field. I'm sure something will complete the cycle of life.

So, here is the scene of the crime:


And the nasty intruder:


One less critter to worry about getting the chickens, or causing problems for Abby. My first thought upon seeing those nasty teeth was, I hope it doesn't have rabbies. We've washed down the shed and shovel with bleached water. Hopefully, that will keep Abby from sniffing and licking the crime scene.

It's 11:23 PM now, almost an hour since the shots rang out. No knocks on the door, no sirens, no signs of the county sheriff, yet. I love living in the country.

What a way to end a date night with my wife. Dinner, a show, and first blood.