New Era Park Neighborhood Association

MISSON IM-POSSUM-ABLE

Mar 06, 2000

-- by Terrye Witte

It was a cold 2:00 AM. as I came upstairs from my studio after calling it a night. I began to close the house down, turning off lights and patting the already sleeping cats. I went to pet one that seemed to have chosen a new sleeping spot on a rug at the foot of the couch?… OOOOPS!


We both jumped up in surprise. On this new spot was a big, old possum who had boldly ambled his large body through the small cat door (at the other end of the house) and had chosen this prime, warm rug for his bed. He was not amused, nor was I.


I opened the nearby front door whooping it up loudly, moving furniture, and waving a broom to scare the "timid" possum out. He was not interested, scared a bit, or even moving slightly toward the door. I had absolutely no intention of adopting this animal or even giving it one eve of comfort from the cold. I had to resort to shoveling him with the broom to get him out the door. This meant lifting him slightly off the ground (visualize the initial take-off of a golf ball or hockey puck) to accomplish the booting out of this cheeky possum.


Once outside, I assume he went to locate the mate I had seen him with before and asked her to move over. It was 3:00 am by the time I moved the furniture back, turned off the lights, closed the cat door, waggled a finger at the oblivious cats, and went to bed.