Photo by Cody Pope
We thought you were a kitty
Hiding alongside the house
As you minded your own business
Hunting up a snake or mouse.
The dogs would run to your corner,
Barking and yapping up a storm
They were only trying to tell us
You were not in a kitty’s form!
Yesterday, we thought a stuffed toy
Was thrown in the midst of our yard
Canine interest was so strong,
Getting them back inside was so hard!
Hubs found me to share the news
“The dogs were out playing, digging a hole,
And when I looked more closely,
They’d gotten a mole!”
“A mole? Are you sure?” I asked.
“It has a long tail; it’s the size of a small cat!”
“That’s not a mole, they’re tiny,” I said,
“Good golly, I hope that it isn’t a rat!”
He described you further
And I suddenly understood
You were a young Opossum
My dogs were mistaking as food.
He rolled you into a plastic bag
And put it with the garbage by the street
But moments later when I left,
The bag was empty; you’d beat feet!
You are so talented
Playing dead, still as a stone
Still we are surprised to find you
Living so close to our home.
What called you here,
To our suburbia lands?
The garbage strewn about next door?
Or our recycled cans?
Oh, Mr. Opossum, I’m begging you now
Would you please just go away?
You keep my dogs a’yappin’
When I want to hit the hay!
LOVE IT! When I lived in California, they build a new freeway close to my home...cleared acres of orange groves in the process. I wend down into my basement one day (basements are rare and this one was literally a root cellar, dirt walls and all) and felt something STARING at me...In old CA homes, its typical for the pipes to be exposed and uninsulated...here under my house, in the root cellar basement, there were some pipes running below the floor boards, down about 8 inches and exposed...I looked up and THERE was an Opossum...staring at me, still as death. SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME!!! Seemed the little guy's home in the groves had been torn down and he was just looking for a cozy new place to live.
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