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. |
