[Granville-Hough] 16 Sep 2009 - Wild Animal Neighbors

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Wild Mammals/Marsupials.

The Opossum was our only marsupial, and its way of life was hard for a 
child to understand. We killed one or more in our chicken yard, and were 
amazed at its row of sharp teeth. It took years of study to understand 
how a marsupial propagated and took care of its young. In the fall of 
the year, when persimmons were ripe, we searched for possums in all the 
trees we knew about. Most any dog could become a possum dog because the 
animals smelled so bad that any dog could follow the trail. There was a 
popular hillbilly melody which went something like: “Racoon up the 
simmon tree, possum on the ground, possum says to racoon, throw them 
simmons down.” Racoons were about, but preferred the streams and reed 
brakes where they could eat crayfish and marine life.
The opossum had a characteristic of playing dead, called "sulling." When 
it appeared to be dead and you put your fingers near its row of sharp 
teeth, you might lose a finger and learn all about "sulling." Today, the 
nearest term we have for human sulling is "state of denial." When my 
brother Donald Hough was under ten years old, he was not an aggressive 
fighter, but if he got mad enough, he would "sull," or so we called it 
that. He would grit his teeth, shake his head, and respond to no one.
Bats lived in old hollow trees, and they were daily visitors to our barn 
in summer months. We did not realize they were consuming flies and other 
insects which infested our livestock. We got some long canes and tried 
to swing them through the air to hit the bats. We could never understand 
how they were so hard to hit. We did not realize they had sonar sensors 
which helped avoid our canes. We finally got one and found it covered 
with mites. We did not try for any more.
Moles would appear from time to time in our orchard, and we had a mole 
catcher which we used to kill them. It was a cruel sort of device, but 
we did use it successfully. The mole was practically blind, and it had 
big strong feet for pushing the soil up as it burrowed after worms and 
other food. We thought it ate things we had planted, and it did do 
damage to row crops. This was probably incidental to getting the worms 
it was hunting.
Brown rats were enemies of the corn crib. They made nests in the hay 
loft or under the farm buildings. They not only ate our corn, but they 
urinated on what they left. We finally screened our corn crib so no rats 
could get in. At Laurel, the makers of masonite used screen mesh in the 
manufacturing process. After a few uses, the mesh was discarded. The 
masonite plant is where we got our supply of screen for our corn crib. 
We also had woods rats, but they did not bother us. I never learned what 
they ate.
Skunks were around every year and let their presence be known if they 
were disturbed. We knew of children and dogs who got sick after being 
sprayed.
Flying squirrels visited us a few times, and I never learned why. 
Perhaps they were looking for food left from feeding our hogs. It was 
amazing to see them fly from tree to tree in our front yard.
There were foxes here and there, and people with hound dogs liked to run 
them. Sometimes they would give a chase for miles. I always wanted to go 
on a fox hunt and listen to the hounds, but I never got that opportunity.
After people left Smith County, other animals colonized the area. Wild 
deer came back and niece June Travis could shoot her quota without ever 
leaving the Hough farm. Beaver built dams in marshy places where we 
never expected to see them. Coyotes became the top of the food chain and 
are bigger than those in the West. They must have bred with wild dogs 
through time. Bears have been reintroduced into some of the game 
preserves, but are not often seen in Smith County. Armadillas became 
garden pests, as they liked the same food as humans. They must have come 
in from Texas. Also the Kunamundy, with the krinkly nose, and which I do 
not know how to spell, also migrated from Texas and Mexico.
In the more Southern counties, my brother Roland Hough had to kill an 
alligator which had taken over his stock pond near Poplarville so that 
his cattle were afraid to drink. In the streams along the Coast the 
nutria (water rats) introduced to bolster the Louisiana fur trade have 
inhabited the waterways and are moving eastward. Instead of being 
skinned for fur, they are now trapped and sold by the truckload to 
commercial al1igator farms. There are millions of feral wild hogs across 
the South. It's actually safer to eat nutria than wild hogs, but it's 
hard to convince people of that fact.
So the land is changing. The rights of hunters to bear arms is a strong 
issue,. Everyone wants to keep the predators under control. It is not 
like living in the city, anymore.

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For Little Rick or even Big Rick.. A Sunday School teacher gave out a 
summer project that everyone would learn to recite the 23rd Psalm and 
know every line. Little Rick was enthusiastic about that Psalm, but he 
could not memorize it. After a summer of effort, he could hardly get 
past the first line. On the day of recital, Little Rick was so nervous 
he could hardly speak. When it came his turn, the Holy Spirit had 
suddenly inspired him. He stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, 
"The Lord is my Shepherd, and that is all I need to know!"