I have a dog, but the birds chases her off! She only chases the cats.

Patty, squirrels and mainly ground squirrels are one of my passions.
I brought back Sousliks (Spermophilus suslikus) from Moldavia and Atlantoxerus getulus from Maroc (i don't know the English spelling).
I also made a site on classification of squirrels: http://iplestan.free.fr

So your story, for me, looks like genocide!

You noticed the smiley, didn't you?

LOL Susan.
As far as I'm concerned, they are all in the RAT family. All 3 of them have a tendancy to have rabies.
Squirrels (tree rats)run around the trap like a gerbil, raccoons claw & hiss, but the opossum lay still & just look at you...they "play possum". I can't stand looking at oppossum tails...makes them look too much like a BIG RAT - tails are so ugly.

Patty, can I bring over some Prairie Dogs and put them into your trap? - Millet

One of you must have the last name of "Clampett" to be eating that stuff...

Now, a prairie dog sounds kinda cute! I'll take 4 in trade of 1 raccoon & 1 opossum.
I did not see Sylvain or Phillip's post till just now.
Sylvain, when I moved here I thought squirrells were cute...I used to feed them out of my hand. Then they tore a hole in my house fascia & had a nest under attic floorboards. I could hear them from my kitchen. I evicted them (kicked them out) with metal flashing & new boards. And every year since, they eat up my veggies & damage too many things. We are overpopulated with them. When we are overpopulated with deer, they give an extra tag to hunters to so they can shoot an extra deer.
Phillip, I had a chow chow & before him, a great dane. They were great dogs. G.D was loveable & comical like Marmaduke (remember him?).
The Chow used to catch & kill squirrels. How many dogs WISH they could catch a squirrell? LOL He barked & ran in circles wanting to go out just hearing the "word". I had to put him down about 4 yrs ago from old age.
I'm just happy I picked a bunch of grapes, & citrus & fruits are still on my trees for 2 months now. Pots are not getting dug up & knocked over for awhile now. They were also digging up my flower bulbs.
Oh Oh, I think I saw a gopher today. What kind of damage can they do? They are so small I don't think it's much.

I just looked at Sylvain's link...says Family - squirrel : in order of rodents. Rodents are RATS LOL I would hate to see a flying squirrel! They would jump on my head & tear my hair out!

Shortly after 10:00 last night, possum #9 had a swimming lesson & after resetting trap, coon #12 had one this morning.
I didn't set trap for 2 nights before, but trap was moved over 2-3 ft each night so I knew something was out there. I even had buckets half filled w/ water on each side & they were moved too.
Now I'm wondering why my yard gate was wide open this A.M. Maybe coon was screaming & my goofball neighbor was here? Coons can't open a gate! Maybe a would-be burglar? Cops? Am I parranoid or what?
I think what I thought were gophers is really chipmunks - someone told me. I think I will put out some rat poison too as Skeet suggested.

I have seen 'coons open a fridge, pop up a soda can, drink from it, then being trained in California, toss the soda can into a recycling container. I think that was in AFV.

yes, they also open the latch to the chicken houses over here, so gates are no problem unless the gate has a lock that requires key.

That's interesting Joe. Yes, I know they can be very smart & figure things out. But after thinking on this for awhile, I think it was a person that opened my gate. The gate is 4ft high & the latch is inside at top. If a coon got up that high, he would just jump/climb over it. It would be almost impossible for him to open latch from outside. Someone reached over & unlatched it, then you have to lift gate to open.
If a coon did that, how do I train it to close the gate??
It's locked now.
Coons are getting in from climbing the fence or a hole under it. Still a little parranoid...hope no one inspects my trash while I'm gone this weekend!

If they don't know how to swim, they are not so clever...

Feed Chinese chocolate!

I give up Scott, what the heck is Chinese Chocolate???

Got home yesterday & checked my trees...one of the 4 limes on tree is GONE. It didn't fall off - it's prolly in neighbors yard with teeth marks in it. So I set the trap & there's a squirrel in it this a.m.
The limes are just bigger than golf balls, so will pick them soon - and, maybe make some 'lime melt aways' cookies!