It was 4:15 a.m. this morning when Logan got out of bed and started pacing to go outside. So I pulled myself out of bed half asleep, down the stairs to the back door. I flipped the switch for the outside flood light, unlocked the door, and opened the screen for Logan to head out first. Then my heart jumped and my eyes widened as Logan bolted for the back of the yard. I immediately knew there was another animal back there. My first reaction was not to yell too loudly to wake up the neighbors and then to figure out how I would explain that Logan bullied one of the wandering neighborhood cats. Yes, they have collars and belong to someone who let's them roam the neighborhood.
As I tried quietly to yell at the dog to leave whatever it was, which I still couldn't see, I notice a shadow go up the back of the tree. No I didn't get closer to see what it was, Are you kidding me there's spiders out there. And the poor dog who apparently doesn't have much of a sense of smell, like me, was just sniffing around the back of yard not sure where the creature went. He did his business when I happened to look up to the top of the fence into the black eyes of the biggest hugest Possum I'd ever seen. Ok, my first thought was "I know what that is, but I've never seen one that wasn't lying along the side of the road. You know, roadkill". Then I giggled to myself because I called it a Possum. For you Northerners, that's Opossum. However, I must tell you that I didn't call it that because we live in Texas, I called it that because that's what my Tennessee born mother and family calls them.
Back to the story...I couldn't believe how big this thing was. I also couldn't believe when I saw what it was that Logan hadn't caught it. Possum's aren't the fastest things in the world, and this one was fat. My next thought turned to how quickly I could get my camera that was sitting by the back door in the house. By the time I got it and focused in the dark, the Possum was down into the neighbors back yard. So, no the picture is not from this morning, but I figured many of you probably haven't seen one in a long time so it's just a reminder.
Later I was thinking I didn't know enough about having a Possum for a neighbor so I did a little research. Come to find out that they aren't always aggressive creatures in fact they are fairly timid unless they decide that it's time to pester the household pets. I also found out that they eat lots of icky bugs, like cockroaches. I didn't know anything would eat cockroaches. After that, I prayed that Logan didn't scare him off for good. Because there are BIG cockroaches in Texas. And no I'm not taking a picture! Next thing you know, I'll be adding up the creatures in the Marchione Family Zoo.
