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?!
Replies
Seriously, should you be THIS excited about a opossum? We caught SEVEN in our garage one summer growing up. Drove them 20 miles out to farmland and let them bother some squirrels instead of my cat. Wishing you some warm weather soon!
A
LOL! It\'s been a loooooong winter here, as you can tell! Any signs of life out in the tundra is cause for celebration.
I have never seen an opossum up close & personal, and I gotta tell ya, it\'s love at first sight! My husband thinks it\'s ugly - and I can see where some may think that (ok, MOST may think that) but I just love their little hands and that face!
I now REALLY know why I like you: your love of booze AND critters. I\'m so thrilled when I see \"wild life\" hanging out around the house. Living in the city, you take what you can get. I love our foxes that trot through our alley and down our street in the late and early hours of the day.
I remember being at my mom\'s when my two younger brothers were still at home. My youngest brother Tony was like 9 or 10 at the time and he and I had just gotten back from a movie when a giant opossum scooted under the front porch. All I saw was his red eyes because it was dark. I yelled to my brother, holy cow did you see that. And he says, yeah its been around for a while, and that he leaves it food all the time. I was horrified that he was literally feeding it, but it made me so proud of him that he was a boy who was kind to animals. Of course, now he\'s a grown man who hunts, but that\'s how that goes living in these parts, as you well know LL.
By the way, I love that you said mother fucker. Ah, another reason why I like ya.
Man, you\'d love me when I\'m pissed off then -when I run out of cuss words I just make up new ones. I say, being raised on the shores of Lake Michigan, you learn to talk like a sailor (or at least like a ship builder).
Fuck yeah.
You poor city girls -- this country gal will send all her wildlife up to you for a day or two or ten! Looking at them through glass is one thing -- having them wanting to eat your arm is different!
The only wildlife that freaks me out (besides the gang-bangers in DT Mpls on Friday nights) are they coyotes that have started making an appearance in the city. I worry about my dog, who has no fear of anything except the nail clipper. Coyotes have been heard, though not seen, in my \'hood, and they\'d make short work of Lenny....I\'m sure all I\'d have left is his collar and a few tufts of fur. We\'ve even had reports of cougar tracks in the snow by the river - less than a mile away.
But I can out-run Shlomo, so I\'m not worried. He\'s a peace-lovin\' little compost raider, I can tell.
Yeah, we\'ve got us some coyotes too, but in a couple of suburbs. Gotta watch your dog with that for sure. We spotted one in the middle of the afternoon in a field when were on the express way one day. It was kind of cool to see it out in the open like that wandering around. I think it was tracking something.
Shlomo... that still cracks me up.
I hear the coyotes once in a blue moon here, but we have some woods and farmland nearby. heard them more and was more worrisome when I lived on the farm in KY. We didnt lose any cattle to them that i can remember tho.
So I\'ll agree that opossums are acceptable, at least when compared to coyotes!