It's cold outside

Last night, we went out to the garage and discovered that something had peed on some of our stuff out there.  And the garage door was closed at the time.  Hmmm....

So, after several minutes of discussing whether it could actually be animal pee or maybe just water that had spilled (and then turned yellow?), I went inside, figuring that it was a cat who was just trying to find a warm place to spend the night.

A couple seconds later, the husband yelled for me, "I found what it was!"

Come on, it's cold outside!

So the husband spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to get the little critter out of the garage!

Unlike my father, my husband did not call the radio station to try to find out what to do with an opossum in his garage.  The radio guy, probably as a joke, told my dad to just make a bunch of noise, which would then make the opossum "play 'possum" and he would be able to pick him up and get him out of the garage.  Surprisingly, that didn't work and I remember being really afraid of what was going on behind the wood pile in our garage while my dad was attempting to catch Harry (of course my brother and I named the opossum! - we were something like 6 and 10 at the time and loved all kinds of animals - we really wanted to keep him...) and get him into a trash can for relocation to the countryside.

My husband, instead, used a broom to sweep him towards freedom, but a cold front had come through Houston yesterday morning and it was down to about 25 deg F by that point.  (That's downright brutal for Houstonians... of all species!)

Sensing his impending eviction from the warmth of our garage, the opossum instead made a beeline to go under my car.  So, the husband again used the broom to sweep him out from under the car and force him into the cold, where he finally ran away to the neighbor's house.

His victory was short-lived, however.  While the husband was occupied with the opossum, the neighbor's cat (the same neighbor who was on the receiving end of a cold opossum) tried to take advantage of the diversion to seek refuge under my car.  It was beginning to look like the outdoor animals were teaming up!

The husband eventually prevailed and made sure the garage was free of critters before closing the door for the night.  We think.