Tuesday Morning...

Waking up on Tuesday morning I headed out to take Kirby outside, as usual. I flipped on the back porch light and through the kitchen window I could see the body of a rather large animal lying there on the porch. We sometimes get wildlife on our porch, like raccoons or opossums, but this one was strange. The first thing I found strange was that it did not move when the porch went from pitch black to bright lights in the blink of an eye. The second strange thing was that it appeared headless and not breathing.

“Ewww.” Was my first thought.

Then I realized that it was not headless. It had a soup can where its head should have been! Our recycling box is on our back porch and apparently someone (but no one in the family has claimed responsibility) put the can in the bin without washing it out. This animal found the can, with probably a morsel of chicken left on the bottom and stuck its head in to get to the treasure. From the looks of the animal at this point, that did not go well.

I did what anyone would have done in my situation…. Ran and got Pepper. We zipped around and got something to cover our arms and hunted for gloves (we found a total of one…. Amazing in a family of 12 hands!!) We put the dog back in her cage and headed out to the animal. It was not breathing very much and I have no idea how long it had been stuck in the can. Pepper reached out and gave the can a slight tug. It did not move. I gave it a slightly stronger tug… still no movement. Pepper ran in and grabbed a can opener. (The pop bottle opening kind) and brought it out to make an air hole in the can and to help break the suction.

The problem with the new fangled cans that soup is put in today is that while the “pop top” feature is great, the bottom of the can is rounded and had no lip for the can opener to connect to. I took the can opener from Pepper and put a small hole in the side of the can (being extra careful not to cause any further brain damage). That was all it took, suddenly a very stunned (and I’d like to think grateful) cat came into view. It shot off our porch and into the darkness in a blur.

Just another morning at our house. ☺