Nature Friends

When you live in the middle of nowhere, you get lonely sometimes. But if you look closely, you'll find lots things begging for your attention.

Like the opossum that snuggled into our basement when the plumbers left the door open a few months ago. We had lots of excitement that night. Hubby originally assured me that the noise I heard down there was a cricket. Right. One big freaking bug! Once we figured out that I was right it really was an opossum, the adventure of releasing the creature back into the wild ensued. It took 3 adults, a barricade of old paneling saved from demo and 12 rounds from a pellet gun to stun the guy into submission long enough to shoo him out the door. Even then, he turned around with "let's see whatcha got" eyes and wanted to fight us. He sure beat our plans to jam on the spoons, whiskey jug and Jew's Harp that night!

And the time when the squirrel set up house under our roof. We spent months banging messages back and forth through the walls and ceilings, that squirrel and I. Hubby tried to seal up it's entrance and trapped it inside for a weekend instead. A few days of cabin fever and that squirrel let us know he'd been left behind! I finally saw him gnawing on a tree yesterday and ran out to reseal his hole. Now he's making a fuss trying to get back inside. I don't blame him. I'm sure all that insulation would beat the snow that's falling outside right now. I just hope a squirrel isn't capable of insurance claim damage.

Or the second (maybe the same) opossum that's facing off with our mouse trap cat on the deck tonight. The two have been staring each other down, hissing, and growling for the better part of two hours. I keep waiting for the bloodshed, but so far, nothing. I did get snapped at through the glass when I got too close to the action tonight. Opossums have to be the ugliest creatures God created.