Let me be, oh opossum

We have an opossum in our attic.

Every couple of months we'll have a rat in an unused closet (closing the hole would require cleaning out the closet which crammed with crap, literally and figuratively, so I don't think that problem will be solved for a while). I've already learned what to do when we have a rat, turn on a light in the closet. Since they are nocturnal it takes them a very long time to adjust, and the noise aspect of the problem (the one that affects me the most, and this the only one I care about) is solved.

I assumed the recent stint of noises inside the walls was another rat, a very active, and large, rat. Then I heard that Noah was complaining about an opossum which was making a lot of noise in the yard while it was climbing a tree. Ah ha, it all made sense now. I told dad, thinking that would make the problem go away, a week later I was awoken at 4 in the morning, and was kept awake for another hour. The next day I mentioned to dad the little problem again, and again I felt sure that the opossum problem would magically get fixed.

Well, it didn't, and this past week, just like the week before, I've been awaken most every night by an incessant scratching right above my head, and last night it lasted from 4-5:30 in the morning. I just did a google search, and apparently one should not use poison, or board up the hole (which dad claims is hard to reach and near the roof) while the possum is out because babies might be inside. So, I'm going to try using a rag soaked in ammonia, and if that doesn't work, I'm calling a trapper. Which of course means if I want to get it done soon I need to call the trapper myself, and just fork over the money I was saving for a dentist appointment. Right now the need for uninterrupted sleep is greater than the need for good dental hygiene. And did I mention we also have fruit flies? What a cruel, cruel world we live in.