It is about 5. It is not quite light but MNature is working on it. The dogs have eaten and Llewis wants out. I have forgotten that Conley is still in his crate and of course, Nigel is stuck.
I flip on the back light, open the door for Llewis who steps out just as a garbage bag with mouldy grass (my decorative grass from the front) begins to move down the sidewalk at a walking pace. Attached to the front of it is a large probably female possum. I am not sure whether her tail is caught or a leg, but she and the bag shuffle down the sidewalk, Llewis following curiously behind a few paces back, making no effort to catch up, obviously puzzled, not willing to let it go but unsure about whether this was something he wanted to tangle with. I followed behind Llewis, calling Llewis softly, "Llewis Llewis come get a treat baby, TREAT TREAT, llewis..." The possum is headed for the sheds that abut Sara's property. As Possum reaches the shed, Llewis turns back and comes with me into the house. Wow, enough excitement for HIM!
I get a leash and the flashlight (once I had to carry a baby possum by the tail and drop it over the fence, not gonna do THAT to an adult) and go out and make a cursory check around the sheds-- no possum. I have seen them go over the 6ft fence so I know she can, and I have seen them go under it, through holes you would think would make a snake shriek, with no problem so I assume she is in Sara's yard.
I come back and let the dogs out-- Conley now included, and I am laughing about the sight it must have been---possum and bag, dog, old lady---when the barking starts.
It is a low-key, early-morning curious bark. A WTF? bark. Oh shit, I missed the possum.
I went out and called the dogs in and they came. Apparently hunting genes are not high on their list from the genetic pool. (Their Mother would be appalled).
I go back out and sure enough, the rather large possum is between a piece of wood and the shed, little beady eyeballs fixed on me with no affect whatsoever.
I left her there.She'll leave altho I bet she has a nest back there someplace. (I have also found children Possums IN the sheds.) (Possum Day Care?)
(Photo from Google)
Possums are not my favorite critters even though I adored Walt Kelly's "Pogo" comic strip. Pogo really wasn't much like the Possums I have met in the backyard, and there have been a few.
The dogs seemed willing to leave the Possum pretty much alone. I am not sure what Conley would do if he caught it out, in the middle of the yard. Of all the dogs and all the Possums I have only had two dogs who really WANTED it, one was Zelda altho she learned fast (from me) to back off: and probably either Belgian when young and, most notably, Nigel. Nigel would have never come in, never quit harrassing the Possum. I would have had to carry him in bodily, snarking and growling threats. But.
Not this time. He slept through it all.
I don't know where the Possum is. I am giving her plenty of time to amble off to another yard.
I have a sign on the back door POSSUM IN YARD: DOGS STAY IN in case I am in the bathroom and John gets up and decides to let them out.
They're napping.
It's been a harrowing morning.....
