Saturday, May 7, 2016

A very marsupial morning

   I woke up early and let the dogs in the backyard. Aki ran to a particular spot on the deck and immediately started sniffing and snorting, and scratching the wood. I went out to investigate, and there was a very large opossum just below the deck. Why a prey animal would take up residence in the yard of two hunting dogs is beyond me... It happens every year. She was so hell-bent on digging through the deck to reach the possum that I had to forcibly take her back in the house. Taylor was curious and interested, but not sure what to do.
   Flash forward 30 minutes later, when my friend Kelly and I were walking to the farmers market. (Taylor joined us, but not Aki, since she is still recovering from knee surgery.) We were walking through a pretty neighborhood when Taylor darted under an evergreen tree… And came nose to nose with another opossum! 
   They were both so completely surprised that neither was sure what to do. I pulled Taylor away, snapped a couple of photos, and we left the creature to go about his business. As he waddled away, it occurred to him that he could've been in trouble-- he picked up surprising speed. And Taylor's synapses started firing, and he realized he missed his quarry. Aki would have made him a possum sandwich!!!
   Taylor received a bite of my croissant for finding the beast and behaving. He couldn't wait to go home and tell Aki!
   Dana commented, "My parents used to have an opossum who would sit up in the tree and watch TV through their back door. They started to leave apples outside for it, and it would recline on the tree branch, munching the apple like it was on a sofa." And then Sheryl said, "We had a striped skunk in the pasture yesterday. Not happy about that."
   So I combined the two and came up with this:

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