Sunday, May 14, 2006

Not So Awesome Possum

I was taking my plants outside to get some sun, when I saw something scary, out of the corner of my eye.

It was a Possum, sitting quietly at the edge of my sofa, wedged in by a side table.

I screamed. I thought it was a strange, evil looking, massively big rat. It was half the size of my cats and seemed way bigger than any rat I’d ever seen. Nanu came running out of his study and was equally horrified.

How on earth are these critters coming into the house? Its eeeky and scary.

I grabbed the camera and took some quick photographs. Nanu thought I was crazy. What was I doing with a camera, when I should be helping him?!!

We left the front door open, moved furniture and tried to "poke" the Possum with the end of our cobweb duster, to get it to move and run out of the house. Billu, Motu and Pico didn’t even seem to care. They just watched the whole commotion with a hard-to-believe disinterest in their eyes.

Finally the Possum moved and ran behind more furniture. Nanu got the bright idea to lay a long cardboard carton on the floor and after several attempts successfully managed to "poke" the Possum into running into the box.

Then it was a race against time. He grabbed the open box and ran at top speed, outside the door and literally “threw” the box in our front yard. He was as scared as I was.

Out ran the Possum from the box! We watched in horrified awe.

But suddenly Pico transformed into a hunting dog. He started barking and out he ran at top speed. I screamed. Nanu screamed. And Pico grabbed the Possum between his teeth.

Much as we were scared by the Possum, we didn’t want him to die. So Nanu poked Pico with the same cobweb duster and I tried to pull on Pico's leash, until he dropped the Possum.

It lay still on the grass. We thought Mr. Possum was dead.

Nanu went to get a trash bag, while I scolded Pico.

And then much to our amazement, the Possum came to life. He opened his eyes, took a quick peek at me and then ran away!

I guess that’s how the term "playing Possum" originated. The Possum played dead and fooled us. I'm glad Pico didn’t kill him.

But I'm terrified Mr. Possum will come back into our house. I can’t wait to move. This is an old house and obviously there are some holes through which the Possum gets in, that are not visible to us.

We looked it up online and discovered we were dealing with a Possum and not a rat. They are apparently harmless creatures. There are even several website called possumrescue.com and opossumsocietyus.org that “promote the gentleness of possums.” Yikes!

It’s been an eventful day all right.

6 comments:

Leah Fo Shizzle Bizzle said...

ah scary! i remember seeing those things around when i was a kid. i would've been screaming, too!

Anonymous said...

how brave of u to take pics.i would have screamed the place down .real scary.pico protected u-a late starter--good hunter!i am surprised billu and motu didnt react--what were they thinking i wonder!

PJ said...

Heh heh. It was pretty scary when it happened. But now that its over, it seems kinda funny!

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's one for the books for sure!

Anonymous said...

An aside...I want to come visit Carbondale guys!! Will you be around for Memorial Day weekend?? :)

PJ said...

Ooooh! Will send you an email right away Elizabeth. Its been ages since we saw you last!