ALIVE! SOMETHING IS ALIVE IN THERE! (opossum)

SOMETHING ALIVE IS IN THERE!  YUCK!

(Oposums are here  to stay…Climate Change)
alan Skeoch
august 2018
“Yikes, there’s something alive in the watering can.”
“Never!”
“I touched fur…and  it moved.”
“Whatever  it is, looks dead to me…curled  up ball of yucky fur.”

Watering can looked  fine…needed  it as  we began summer  clean-up.  we  had  not touched the watering  can  all summer until this moment.

“It’s an  opossum, playing dead…hoping we  will  go  away.  They do that.”
“Not playing dead  now…looking  right at us.”
“Cute”
“Cute!  Never…ugly is better…looks like  big rat with a bit of  mange.  Long stiletto nose with 50 sharp teeth…more teeth than  any
other mammal.”
“Does it bite?”
“Not unless my finger got in its  mouth”
“Nearly did when you picked  up the can by the lid.”
“Touhed with my  fingers…hair like  a paint brush…long and sort of  stiff.”
“Possums are a  Sure  sign  of  global warming.”
“Climate change?”
“Possums have been moving into Ontario for a couple of decades now.  Lots of them  around but not seen  much as
they prowl around at night looking  for food.  They  eat just about anything…dead  animals, toads, rotten fruit, garbage, even snakes…but mostly
vegetarian diet.”
“She  might have liked  your finger.”
“Reckon so.  How  do you know that is female.”
“Looks  like preparing for a birth…or two…or five…or more.”

“Did  you  know that Opossums  (Possums) are the only marsupials in  the Americas?”
“Do you mean she  has babies in a pouch?”
“Yep, feeds them there…nipples in the pouch.”
“I read they carry youngsters on their  backs  when moving  around.”
“True…five or six of them holing on…that’s  after they leave the pouch of course.”
“103 different kinds of opossums…but those coming to Canada are the Virginia type.”
“Where did  they evolve?”
“Evolve?  You must believe in evolution.”
“I do…ever  since  reading Charles  Darwin’s book,  Origin of Species…
“i bet he was startled when HMS Beagle beached in South America…he wandered through the jungles …he must have met Opossums”
“They evolved  in South America then moved north to North America when the continents  jointed.
“Biologists  think Opossums were around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth…they are survivors…when  the asteroid  hit the Gulf
of  Mexico 65 million years ago, possums  must have fed  on dead dinosaurs…eat just
about anything…tolerate some weather extremes too.”
“Your guessing about that.”
“not reallly…mammals like you and me evolved from survivors of that horrific  detonation…had  to eat something.
“I  found  an  Opossum in the fencerow last winter on a cold blustery day…alive…but odd to be  wandering about in winter…maybe had rabies.
“Not likely…Opossums are resistant to rabies…one of the few mammals  like  that.”

 

“What a weird  name ‘Opossum’…what does it mean?”
“Name was first  recorded by John Smith and William  Strachey way back  around 1607 in the Jamestown colony.”
“Opossum sounds like a native North America word”
“It is…derives  from  Algonquin language meaning  “white dog”  or “dog  like beast”…Take your pick.
“I like the word ‘beast’ best.   Ugly as an old rubber boot with wet socks as  a  liner.”
“Now  there’s an  image that stretches the  imagination.”
“The  name Possum was picked up by Australians…lots  of  marsupials there…distantly related to kangaroos.”
“So what will we do  with her?”
“Can’t stay here…dogs will go  wild.”
‘Get a  sack…big one.”
‘You  hold the sack, I’ll try to shake  her out.”
“Not falling…Only leaves coming…she’s holding on to something.”
“Possums are good at that…can  hang on with legs, arms
and  tail.”
“Shake the can…”
“I am…let me  hit it with a hammer”
“the possum?”
“No,  the watering  can…that will make  her  let go…There…she’s in the  sack.”
“now what?”
“Let her go somewhere…maybe a  park down by the lake.”
“Do possums like parks?”
“Only if there are dead trees with holes.”
“Parks are quite  clean…few  dead  trees. Where will she go?”
“I suspect she will  find  someone  else’s watering can.”
“Maybe she’ll come  back here…”
“Maybe.”
alan  skeoch
august 2018
P.S> POSSUM TALK:  USE CLICKS TO COMMUNICATE  “click…clickers click…click,click, click…clikety click”
“What does that mean  Alan?”
“Fortunately I took a minor course at the U. of  T. in Possum language…”
“What does it mean?”
“Possum is saying  “I’m coming home tonight, turn watering can on its  side.”














Sent from my iPhone


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