I have another chapter to My Sensitive Security System…this time with photos!
It all starts calmly enough. Last night I was home from teaching a knitting class, watching Deadliest Catch and knitting. Abe is suddenly really interested in going outside. I put my knitting down and open the back door.
I plant myself back in my knitting chair. Then, over the din of crab pots crashing on the tv, I hear some strange doggie noises. Abe is making a frustrated yelpie-growl sound. I jump up to investigate.
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His focus is this fence. I move in closer. |
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And I see these beady eyes.
“All creatures great and small”…whatev. Possums give me the CREEPS. I find myself making this strange gargling noise of disgust in the back of my throat. Like a caveman sound. |
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Naturally, Ike wastes no time getting in on the action. He can’t see the possum at first, but he can smell it.
He knows something is there, and he wants it. |
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The boys spend several minutes running around, trying to figure out how they can build a ladder with no thumbs.
Then the frozen possum moves. It wobbles across the fence, sending the dogs into a frenzy. Then it FALLS, and Ike quickly snaps it up. Even though my skin is crawling, it is actually pretty cool to watch my dogs hunt. They are so instinctively good at it. |
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I didn’t get many photos of this part, because I was really really trying to convince Ike to leave the possum alone. He doesn’t. He carries it around for a while, shakes it, drops it, carries it around some more…all while I keep making that grossed-out gargling noise in my throat. |
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Luckily, my domestic dogs don’t associate “hunting” with “eating”. Food is something that I lovingly present to them in a bowl, not something that they have to catch themselves.
Once the possum stops moving, Ike loses interest and comes in the house. |
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And Mia? Does not care about the stinky possum. |
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Once the dogs were in the house, I watched the motionless creepy rodent through the window and said to myself, “please be playing possum, please be playing possum.” Sure enough, the possum stood up and crept away.
Drat! Maybe next time…right, Ike? Ewww. |
Well, they’ve officially earned their “Conquering Heroes” status now! I swear, I said “EWWWW” out loud when I saw the picture of the possum on the fence! Gives me the creepy crawlies!
I’m glad to hear that your boys saved you from the killer possum. It’s so cool that they knew he was out there from inside your house! Good boys! (And good girl to Mia for knowing to stay away!)
Ditto on the possoms give me the CREEPS thing. I once heard some rattling around in my garage, lift up a garbage can that had fallen over and came face to face with a furry manifestation of Satan himself. Red eyes, mouth agape, sharp teeth and a hissing from the bowels of hell. Of course, I was very brave and ran screaming back into the house, slamming the door and praying like crazy that the furry devil or possom or whatever it was, would take the opportunity to leave out the still open garage door. It did. Possoms. eeww, eeww, eeww!
Ick! Possums are so creepy! We had one on our fence on Christmas Day and we called him the Christmas possum. He drove the cats crazy! Another one decided to live in our garage until he got into a death fight with the neighbor’s cat (both lost, sadly) and died in our driveway. I freaked out but the neighbor took care of the carcass. I see that Mia’s taste is more refined and she can’t be bothered with a creepy rodent. Good for her!
please, she totally sent her “knights” to defend her castle. long live queen mia!
possums = über creepy
it’s true – they are so creepy!! and i love that mia showed no interest – boys will be boys, eh?
Girl, you don’t know from possum. When I was about 13 and we lived in the country, my dog (he was the best dog ever! protected me from all kinds of bad stuff, but was a complete ninny in a thunderstorm)killed them and deposited them in the front yard on a regular basis. If we left for a few days (don’t worry, someone was taking care of him), we’d come back to 5 or 6 dead’ns in the yard. And guess who had the privilege of “taking care” of them. That’s ewww.
He killed many a snake, too, and a skunk or racoon now and then. But bless his heart, if he found a nest of rabbits, he’d bring the babies back one by one, holding them gently in his mouth, doing no harm. Don’t know about the momma…
First, I’m glad I’m not the only one that knits up a storm while watching “Deadliest Catch”.
Second, possums and racoons in my backyard kind of weird me out. We don’t have dogs, but my cat has run into the closed sliding glass door a few times trying to get at them. Thanks the universe she’s not big enough to tote one around. The most she’s ever caught is a gopher, and that was pretty high on the ‘ew’ factor.
YEAH FOR IKEY!!! See there IS another reason for me to love him so. He SAVED you and sweet little Mia from the gross thing in the backyard. I fortunately have never had an encounter with a possum, but ya know bears or possum, bears or possums? And not to sound too much like an alaskan is it an Opossum or possum?
Actually, the opossum is not a rhodent. It belongs to the infraclass Marsupialia, as do the kangaroos. Why the distain?
I was making that gurgling grossed out noise just while reading this! What do you think of Deadliest Catch this season?
Awww. The possum was doing what he does and the boys were doing what they do. The possum can’t help it that he’s not as darling and adorable as the boys. It looks like Mia has adapted to her 5 star accommodations!
Just wanted to let you know that I tagged you for a cool meme that I thought you’d like. Here is the meme. http://www.anxiousdog.com/flickr-meme
P.S. I never knew possum’s were alive! I always thought they were born dead smashed on the highway…
Jeez, am I the only one on the planet who actually thinks opossums are CUTE? LOL! I feel Malena on her story though! We had a plum tree in our back yard that bore so much fruit, we couldn’t give it away fast enough. Well, it was obviously Snack Central for all the local opossums and birds and other critters. Our Great Pyrenees, Oliver, killed SIX baby opossums one summer–and once I even caught him at it! It was horrible. I bet that opossum’s thick skin saved it, LOL.
P.S. I never knew possum’s were alive! I always thought they were born dead smashed on the highway… HAHAHAHA
I love that your little girl knows well enough to leave the stinky stuff to the boys
I hope the Mighty Hunters got treats (a tooth brushing) and kisses.
Raisin was out hunting last night too. Last bathroom call at 11 lasted 20 minutes cause she was chasing moths. Grrrr.
Just got back from far eastern trip and read yet another terrific Possum story. Your last one is in our latest Basenji club newsletter – and I hope I can use this one too – with those super piccies of Basenjis doing what comes naturally… but darned if I know why they want to catch an ugly critter like that in the first place.
Ace also catches opossums when they run through the yard. They always play dead, but Ace still plays with them. I saw one creep away and then one I had to take to the emergency vet bc it was a baby, and one that was a tiny baby that was dead in my yard. 🙁 He thankfully cannot catch the rabbits that are in the yard where we are now. I’m hoping our new house doesn’t have any creatures for him to chase.