PLAYING 'POSSUM

Most of you are probably understand the above mentioned phrase. It is what we taught our children to do when we wanted them to be quiet for awhile--like having a dog play dead. I had an interesting experience with "playing 'possum" on Labor Day and I wasn't the opossum.



I went to my back door to pitch some recyclables into the bin when I noticed that the lid had blown off a garbage can that I also keep in that spot. In the bottom of the can was about an inch of water and a dead baby possum. I was planning its funeral and thought that since John and Cheryl would be arriving soon that John could be the grave digger. I would have him dig up a big shovel of dirt under the grapefruit tree and hold it while I dumped the can into the hole and he could put the dirt back in the hole. Seemed like a smooth operation to me. While he was getting the shovel I moved the can and the little opossum began to scurry around in it. He truly had been "playing 'possum." I dumped the wet little critter on the ground and after sitting there looking dazed for a moment he began to move on. He looked pretty pitiful. I hope his mommy welcomed him back to the nest and cleaned him up so that he would look like a decent baby opossum. I think he was saved just in time for another day in the hot sun would not have promoted good opossum living conditions. It is funny how animals can get the last laugh on us humans.