Never, Ever, Ever...

...will I leave the house again without my camera. It just never fails--I always miss a photo op. Last night I took Annika to see a parish production of a musical. I sat in the car with my trusty laptop and got some writing done. As the evening grew darker, I noticed lights on in the long row of windows along the ground level of the parish school. The windows threw back-light onto two very interesting silhouettes scampering by. But I had no camera. Ah well...never again!!

The second was clearly a scrawny cat, slinking along after the other shadow. That first shadow...oh, my! At first glance, out of the corner of my eye, I really thought it was a huge rat. But the behavior and movement was all wrong. For one thing, I watched as it climbed into a small yew bush, using its prehensile tail to grab a branch. Later, when the light flooded out from the opening doors, I saw the face of a fine young opossum. That would have been quite a challenge for a cat, but the cat kept its distance, and we drove away.

Since I did not have my camera, I'll substitute a photo from my files. I just realized that I took this photo over 20 years ago. I wonder how many generations of opossums have some and gone since then? They are very common around here, and are most famous for their inability to cross the road successfully. These little fellows were saved from their mother's pouch after she had an unfortunate encounter with a car, and were hand raised at the wildlife center when I was working there (along with the fourth, just out of the photo--identical quads are the norm for opossums) .