Perhaps a pesky possum is a poem percolating? But I’ve already played at that with my spring 2024 opossum poem (about a spring 2023 opossum sighting). The peskiness of “Didelphis” may in part be its habit of flip-flopping names: possum/opossum. Which is it?!
In any event I’ve stumbled upon a few photographs from August 7, 2022 that I made upon live-trapping and relocating a pesky possum that had decided our vegetable garden was her/his all-you-can-eat buffet.
But before blundering on, let’s take a quick look at this mysterious marsupial.
The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), also known as the North American opossum, is the only opossum living north of Mexico, its range extending south into Central America. It is the northernmost marsupial in the world. In the United States and Canada, it is typically called a possum… (Source: Wikipedia)
Fortunately, Rosslyn’s backlands offer possibilities aplenty for relocating wildlife until they learn to observe some boundaries. In general, we take an “abundance approach”, planting enough fruit and vegetables for ourselves *and* for our wild neighbors. But occasionally it’s necessary to rehome a critter unwilling to share fairly. And so this pesky possum was given an opportunity to thrive far from our organic produce.
And, despite a ferocious display memorialized above, the pesky possum actually proved relatively unpesky, even docile, never once “playing possum”. And that, playing possum (aka apparent death) — or more specifically, *NOT* playing possum — brings me to the point of this post.
During our first few months after moving into Rosslyn another pesky possum failed to play the appropriate part.
If memory serves, it was December 23, 2008. Carpenters had just barely completed the garapa deck and it was frosted like a cake with about an inch of new fallen snow. We were thrilled to finally be living at Rosslyn, even though there were plenty of incomplete projects. It would be our first Christmas in our new home!
But what about the pesky possum? for now I’m going to pause that story. Because it makes me look pretty daft. And because Susan tells the story better. (Stay tuned…)
What do you think?