Sad PS

The possum died, but not before she had a scrumptious full plate of cat food. She had a safe, warm place for her last bit of time on earth. I buried her in the back yard in a nest of golden leaves, in a place where the sun first touches the yard as it rises. Poetic but ridiculous since possums are nocturnal. Oh well.

ONE OF THE MANY REASONS I LOVE WINTER

The river's always right there, though foliage screens into invisibility late May through early November. My part of Kittery still hasn't had a hard frost so we've held on to flowers and leaves and wits a bit longer this year. Now the trees are starting to think it's time to let go. Late afternoon, I am wonderfully surprised--as I am every year--by sunset light glittering right over the water into my window. Not a great picture but still, you get the idea. One of the many reasons I love winter. It returns to me the river.

Center for Wildlife today. Got to visit the three squirrels I raised. They were in an outdoor cage, sitting up on high shelves. Their tails fluffed up behind them like autumn clouds. Eating acorns. Three beauties! Soon to be released back into the woods. They started out so scrawny and broken and are now nothing but beautiful. And I did see the release of Great Horned Owl who'd been at the Center since July. Oh, yeah. Amy let go and that owl was off into evening in one big happy hurry!

This isn't my picture but nevertheless, the bathtub possum could be this possum's sister. . .

Opossum with concussion in my bathtub

I was walking the dogs this evening when I spotted a confused opossum on the sidewalk ahead of us. Tied the excited dogs to a telephone pole and went to examine the poor juvenile opossum who let me walk right up . . .couldn't see any blood but suspect the critter had just been
grazed by a car. She turned in a little half-hearted spiral then just stopped and looked at me as if to say, "How has my life come to this?" If she'd her wits about her, she would have fled the minute she saw me and/or the dogs. Up to speed, an opossum can go at a fairly decent clip, about 4 miles per hour. Decided I couldn't leave her there. She was at the mercy of humans both in and out of cars. So took off my coat, bundled her up like a baby, held her in one arm, while I untied the dogs, took their leashes in my other hand and set off under the still-mighty-full-moon toward home, hoping that she stayed dazed long enough to forget about trying to bite me. Opossums have lots of sturdy teeth. Now she's in the bathtub with a small dish of wet cat foot and also water. If she survives the night, I'll take her up to the Center for the Wildlife in the morning. A doolally opossum's in the bathtub and all's right with the world.