File this one under “random things that happen in your life,” today marks one year since I was greeted by a very tiny, very toothy and very angry little visitor – a baby Opossum! Yep, one of the more random things to write about but I’ve been wanting to talk about this guy for a year so, why not today of all days?
It was April 21st of 2019 – Easter Sunday, coincidentally. I decided, because I’m weird like that sometimes, to go outside and clean the windows of the house. As I was doing that at the bay kitchen window I noticed some rustling in the brush in from of me. I look down to see a gray and white little fuzzball — a baby Opossum, of all things, just walking along exploring.
This actually wasn’t as surprising to me as you may think — a month or two beforehand we had seen an Opossum on the roof of the house, and over the following weeks had heard sounds of something living in the attic and in the inaccessible space above my room (my house has a somewhat inefficient design, to put it lightly.) There was a section of the roof, I believe it’s called a “soffit” which was damaged and allowed access, via a bit of a wrap-around path, to the space in question. This has since been repaired but at that time we didn’t even notice the damage was there and in retrospect we realized just what had happened: The mother Opossum had used our attic to give birth to and care for her baby’s which, honestly, we found very nice. No damage was done to anything and as I said, that area of the house (which was simply damaged due to age, this place is somewhat falling apart) was an easy fix so, as they say, no harm no foul. Of course, at the time we didn’t realize the sounds we were hearing was a mother opossum caring for her young — we still figured whatever was up there would leave once it began to get warmer, as during that time frame it was still cold at night and cool to moderate during the day. Sure enough she did, as the night before I saw the baby opossum would have been certainly the last night (if not sooner) that I heard any noise up there, or around the roof from the mothers scurrying.
Move on to Easter and clearly this little guy (or girl) had been left to fend for themselves, and fend they did — I stopped cleaning and decided to document the little guy. It’s nice that I had just gotten a new phone at the time so I was able to use its camera to good effect, snapping some great shots from a safe distance. He / she stuck around for maybe 45 minutes while I continued to clean up the yard from winter debris. What I didn’t realize was, at a point, the little marsupial had decided that my front door would make a good place to hang out — literally!
That’s right, the little bugger blocked me from going into my own house. Sure, I could have just stepped over him but I didn’t want to upset him, as even getting close caused him to open his mouth (Opossums have more teeth than any other mammal, so even for his little self it was intimidating to see) and hiss defensively, and I’d rather nor stress out a baby any more than I already was so I just went around to the back door and went back inside. The baby opossum finally left maybe 30 minutes later, never to be seen again.
The next day, incidentally, we found the remains of 2 of his siblings in the side yard – it would seem they didn’t make it, possibly falling off of the mother as she scurried around, or maybe they decided to take a jump not realizing how far down it was — who knows. This would be the last interaction with any opossums we’d have. A bit of a shame, as I love seeing animals I’d not normally see and don’t mind wildlife like that being nearby so long as we keep our distance from each other — you never know, but Opossums are pretty safe for wild animals so take it for what you will.
I wonder what that little guy or girl is up to right now. Hopefully Opossum stuff, whatever that might actually be.
More to come, as always.
Oh, and yes, it is “Opossum” and not “possum.” The Opossum is the only marsupial in North America (North of Mexico, anyway) – Possums, on the other hand, are Australian. I really wish people wouldn’t mix the two up… but that’s yet another story for another time.