Shlomo the North American Marsupial
The dog was going ballistic at the sliding glass patio door the other day, barking wildly and throwing his 45 lb body against the glass, un perro fanatical. I went to investigate, finding it hard to imagine what could cause such a commotion in my back yard, as it's covered in waist deep drifts of snow and fairly impassable by man or beast, save for the path I had shoveled for the dog to do his business.
At first I could only see Lenny, who was flailing at the glass door with his front feet while standing on his hind legs, fur puffed out in a fake lions mane around his neck, foam flying from his snapping, barking jaws, clearly quite mad. And then it appeared; a ghosty white face peering in from the outside - wide blue eyes and a long, pointed muzzle ending in a bright pink nose. Little pink feet were feeling the glass, leaving what looked like fairy palm prints. A bushy body with two toned fur ended with a long pink rat's tail. It was an opossum!
Fearless, curious & slow moving, it was completely unfazed by my attack dog, or me for that matter, mere inches away. In fact, it seemed puzzled by the glass that separated it from us, feeling it with it's little hands, sniffing at it, as if trying to understand what sort of protective shell this was.
I crouched down to get Len under control and get as close of a look as possible. The opossum just looked back at me for a bit, got bored with that, scouted around my deck for a few minutes, then taking it's dear sweet time, entered it's little dug-out hole in the snow bank to it's home beneath the deck.
My husband, dog and I have seen the 'possum twice since, moseying along in our yard and over to the neighbors. We've taken to calling him Shlomo, a polite way of saying slow-mo' as in slow mother-fucker. (Apologies to anyone who shares this fine Jewish name). It owns this chain of back yards, linked by it's meandering path visible in the snow; from under our deck to behind the composter, under the wood fence to neighbor #1's brush pile, back under the fence along my garden wall, over the chain link fence to neighbor #2's garden shed and composter, over to neighbor #3's garden and under their wood fence to neighbor #4's monster silver maple tree, back over my garden wall to the dug out hole and home.
I feel good knowing that our yards are hospitable to these critters, as we are in the big city after all. Northeast Minneapolis has it's share of the usual suspects; bunnies, squirrels, sparrows - but we've also got a family of wild turkeys, raccoons, deer, fox, bald eagles, perigren falcons, and now Shlomo the opossum - North America's ONLY marsupial. How lucky could I get?!
At first I could only see Lenny, who was flailing at the glass door with his front feet while standing on his hind legs, fur puffed out in a fake lions mane around his neck, foam flying from his snapping, barking jaws, clearly quite mad. And then it appeared; a ghosty white face peering in from the outside - wide blue eyes and a long, pointed muzzle ending in a bright pink nose. Little pink feet were feeling the glass, leaving what looked like fairy palm prints. A bushy body with two toned fur ended with a long pink rat's tail. It was an opossum!
Fearless, curious & slow moving, it was completely unfazed by my attack dog, or me for that matter, mere inches away. In fact, it seemed puzzled by the glass that separated it from us, feeling it with it's little hands, sniffing at it, as if trying to understand what sort of protective shell this was.
I crouched down to get Len under control and get as close of a look as possible. The opossum just looked back at me for a bit, got bored with that, scouted around my deck for a few minutes, then taking it's dear sweet time, entered it's little dug-out hole in the snow bank to it's home beneath the deck.
My husband, dog and I have seen the 'possum twice since, moseying along in our yard and over to the neighbors. We've taken to calling him Shlomo, a polite way of saying slow-mo' as in slow mother-fucker. (Apologies to anyone who shares this fine Jewish name). It owns this chain of back yards, linked by it's meandering path visible in the snow; from under our deck to behind the composter, under the wood fence to neighbor #1's brush pile, back under the fence along my garden wall, over the chain link fence to neighbor #2's garden shed and composter, over to neighbor #3's garden and under their wood fence to neighbor #4's monster silver maple tree, back over my garden wall to the dug out hole and home.
I feel good knowing that our yards are hospitable to these critters, as we are in the big city after all. Northeast Minneapolis has it's share of the usual suspects; bunnies, squirrels, sparrows - but we've also got a family of wild turkeys, raccoons, deer, fox, bald eagles, perigren falcons, and now Shlomo the opossum - North America's ONLY marsupial. How lucky could I get?!
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