3.17.2007

Opossum Time!

Over the last few weeks I started noticing things knocked over in our garage. Then the garage door stopped working. When the repairman came out he asked if we had a dog.

"Ummm, no," I thought.

Apparently an animal had chewed through the power line. And with that I started parking my car on the street.

Our garage is fairly old and there are several large holes on the walls. It seemed we had a visitor. But what could it be?

I notified our slow-to-act landlord and let it be. The next day I found animal feces on the ground in there. This thing wasn't small.

Each day I'd check again and each day everything would be knocked over. Pots were bumped from shelves and shattered. A box was chewed up. I even found an empty bottle of windshield wiper fluid with the lid chewed off. Did it drink the stuff?

Finally yesterday when someone was going to come out to repair the holes I went into the garage to clear space away from the damaged wall. We had a very large plastic bag from an art supply store holding a couple paintings. I picked it up and something wasn't right. It felt heavy. I peered in and jumped back.

Something's in there!

What to do? What to do?

I carried the entire bag outside and placed it on the ground. Nothing happened. Was it dead?

What to do? What to do?

With my foot I lifted up the back of the bag. Something started to very slowly move. Out came this creature--about the size of a large cat with a rat-like tail. It was an opossum!

It slowly stepped into the sunlight and turned around and gave me the "why did you wake me up?" look and then took it's time walking away. It stopped to drink a little water at a dripping faucet then continued moping off.

Wow. Nutty.

Glad those holes are being repaired as I write this. It will be nice to get the garage back from our uninvited guest...and not have to worry about it feasting on pieces of my car.

Fun facts:
The opossum is north america's only marsupial. Females carry as many as 13 offspring in their pouch between February and May.



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