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- Apr 8, 2013
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So I have a sweet feral boy cat that now lives in my garage (Fireball) He can enter and exit the garage from an opening from a broken vent, which I pulled on purpose to allow my rabbit, and now also Fireball to go in an out. We are planning on replacing the opening with a more sophisticated wall mount pet door in the near future.
Initially Fireball was living outside, hiding under my neighbor house crawlspace so I would put food in my backyard and he would come eat it at night. This food attracted Possums. A baby possum would be there every night, and the possum mother was also spotted a couple times around. I didn't think this was a big problem, except that eventually, allegedly, the big possum attacked and hurt my rabbit by scratching his eye. Rabbit is fine now though.
Also what happened is that eventually, Fireball moved to stay inside my garage, so I now feed him inside, but the possum managed to also get inside the garage. It was a mess because, unlikely Fireball, which goes outside to do his business, the possum would poop all over inside my garage and it stinks like crazy (bunny also poops but that doesn't stink and he does pee outside - thanks god-).
We eventually figured out the possum had moved in my laundry cabinet (he would enter from a opening in the back that was supposed to accommodate the sink drain pipe.) He had made a bed on one side -with my laundry nets- and a toilet on the other side. It was a mess. So we trapped that little possum, drove him far away behind an area with parks,a creek and close to the zoo, and released him there.
Now we recently got another larger possum that had found and decided to move in my garage. Yesterday we also trapped him and brought and released the same place. This time the possum had somehow scared Fireball away which was not staying in the garage any longer. I saw him yesterday evening sleeping on the opposite side of my home, and haven't seem him today yet. I hope he will come back tonight and go back to his garage.
So my question is, really, is there anything I can do to prevent the possum from coming into my garage but allow the cat and the rabbit in? One idea I have is to have a raised entrance that the cat would need to jump onto a shelf before being able to go in and out. Not sure how high it will need to be but I assume possums cannot jump as high as a cat, and as long as there is no way to climb up that should keep them out. This solution would imply that the rabbit has another entrance but that could lead to a caged area in the garage in which bunny would find his shelter and food but not cat food there. So the possum wouldn't have much a reason to want to be there?
Any other ideas?
Initially Fireball was living outside, hiding under my neighbor house crawlspace so I would put food in my backyard and he would come eat it at night. This food attracted Possums. A baby possum would be there every night, and the possum mother was also spotted a couple times around. I didn't think this was a big problem, except that eventually, allegedly, the big possum attacked and hurt my rabbit by scratching his eye. Rabbit is fine now though.
Also what happened is that eventually, Fireball moved to stay inside my garage, so I now feed him inside, but the possum managed to also get inside the garage. It was a mess because, unlikely Fireball, which goes outside to do his business, the possum would poop all over inside my garage and it stinks like crazy (bunny also poops but that doesn't stink and he does pee outside - thanks god-).
We eventually figured out the possum had moved in my laundry cabinet (he would enter from a opening in the back that was supposed to accommodate the sink drain pipe.) He had made a bed on one side -with my laundry nets- and a toilet on the other side. It was a mess. So we trapped that little possum, drove him far away behind an area with parks,a creek and close to the zoo, and released him there.
Now we recently got another larger possum that had found and decided to move in my garage. Yesterday we also trapped him and brought and released the same place. This time the possum had somehow scared Fireball away which was not staying in the garage any longer. I saw him yesterday evening sleeping on the opposite side of my home, and haven't seem him today yet. I hope he will come back tonight and go back to his garage.
So my question is, really, is there anything I can do to prevent the possum from coming into my garage but allow the cat and the rabbit in? One idea I have is to have a raised entrance that the cat would need to jump onto a shelf before being able to go in and out. Not sure how high it will need to be but I assume possums cannot jump as high as a cat, and as long as there is no way to climb up that should keep them out. This solution would imply that the rabbit has another entrance but that could lead to a caged area in the garage in which bunny would find his shelter and food but not cat food there. So the possum wouldn't have much a reason to want to be there?
Any other ideas?