To clear up any confusion, I thought I'd educate you a little more about opossums. I looked up lots of info about opossums yesterday after our adventure. "Opossum" is the correct spelling of the word, but people shorten it to "possum" all the time. I personally use "an opossum" when I feel like it and "possum" when I feel like it. When I'm speaking, though, it's always "possum, possum, possum." The correct representation would probably be 'possum, with an apostrophe where I have omitted the O.

The word opossum, by the way, comes from an Algonquian word: wapathemwa. So says the all-knowing Internet. And opossums are marsupials--not rodents, as I thought.

All right, so now for the rest of the story (a la Paul Harvey?).

After Mom and I had set our little friend outside on top of a stack of boxes (away from any curious cats or nosy dogs who might be a little too interested in a midnight snack), we sat down to watch our recording of America's Got Talent. They were determing the four finalists tonight, and then America would be voting for the person to win the million dollars. Mom and I think Terry Fator deserves to win. I'm holding out for Cas Haley, though, too.

While we were watching, I heard definite scratching noises from behind us. It seemed to be coming from our laundry room. It didn't sound like our possum was trying to get out of the cage, it sounded like there was another possum! I exchanged glances with my mom. "Have we got a whole family of possums in our house??" Mom wondered aloud.

We finished watching the show, but I kept looking back towards the noises, expecting all the time to see another little face looking over the steps at me. Finally Jerry Springer announced that the lines were open to call in our votes and that the results will be next week. "Let's go check out the noises," I said.

"I'm not wearing any shoes!" I suddenly realized. I did not want any creature, rodent or marsupial, biting at my toes.

Mom ventured back to our laundry room and I was soon behind her, shod only in my little dancing shoes, but they were the first things I could find. She tentatively tiptoed over to the lamp that lights the room and turned it on. I'm sure she was dreading feeling the squish of something soft and furry under her feet.

I couldn't see because I was behind her, but when she turned the light on and looked down, she gave a little gasp like she had almost disturbed something in its sleep. "What? What??" I asked and tried to peer over her shoulder. There was another possum, same size as the first one.

"Are there any babies?" was my first question.

"No, just the one," Mom said, glancing around at the floor. Finally she moved so I could see better. Nope, no babies.

"How are we going to get another possum into the cage?" I wondered.

"Do you have any work gloves or anything?" Mom asked me. I had some, but I didn't know where they were. Luckily Mom thought she had left some outside on the patio. She went and checked while I guarded the possum from our cat, who had come around, wondering what all the excitement was about. That could have been bad, but when Mom opened the back door and went out to search for her gloves, Kitten jumped down and followed her right out.

Mom came back with the gloves and I let her slip by me (laundry room's not too big :) ) to get back to the critter. It took some manoeuvering, but Mom somehow managed to grab her and hold her upside down in her hands. She didn't seem to like that very much, but she didn't bite. Just bared her teeth and gums at us. We carried her out as fast as we could to the kitty carrier. "Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" Mom said. "It's pooping on me or something!" I could barely control my laughter. My mom is hilarious. "Open the door."

I opened the little cage door and we shoved Miss Possum in with her Mr. Possum. "EW! Possum poop!" Mom said. For a nurse.... LOL! I can't even finish that sentence! I'm still cracking up!

I found out later that it wasn't necessarily poop. When opossums feel threatened, they secrete a "foul-smelling fluid from the anal glands," says Wikipedia. At any rate, it definitely was dark and stinky. Good thing Mom had gloves on. :) She whipped them off real fast once we got Miss Possum safely in with her hubby.

(FYI: I don't actually know which was a girl and which was a boy, or even if it WAS a girl and a boy, but that just seemed logical. :) )

And THAT is the rest of the story, of the day we found two opossums in our house.

So here's a little epilogue... I think we're going to try and get the possums back into the tree overhanging or backyard. Assuming that's where they came from. But they're nocturnal, and when we checked on them this morning, they were curled up and sound asleep. The cheese was untouched. I guess they eat fruits and nuts and vegetables and, apparently, smaller animals.

Here's one last picture for you to end my story with:

-Stephanie

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