September typically brings a wonderful Indian Summer to Oregon and this year is no different. The mornings start off cool. Then the days warm up (sometimes too warm! we're back in the 90s again) and the evening breeze kicks in around 7 p.m. and makes for a pleasant night. Saturday was just like this. I had all the windows and screen doors open enjoying the cooling breeze through the house. It was a nice change from the AC. Gracie was up to something in one of the back bedrooms - it's hard to know sometimes. And then I heard a slight scratching noise by the front porch. It was a soft noise, but one that Gracie heard from the netherworld of the back of the house. She came charging down the hallyway to the front window and arrived in time to see two opossums crawl out from under the front porch. In a flash, she hit the window screen, which promptly popped out. It was only because I was close by that I got my arms around her waist as she was half way out the window. I'm surprised the opossums didn't keel over right then, but instead they scampered off toward the neighbor's house. Gracie gave them a few parting barks that would make a grown man go weak. I haven't seen the opposum twins lately, so I'm hoping the notion of a dog for an upstairs neighbor was not appealing to them.
I'm reminded of a story from my friend, Steve. He has a golden retriever named Jiggs who has about a million stuffed dog toys. One such toy is a opossum. During Steve's evening ritual of collecting the stuffed toys from the yard, he picked up the stuffed opossum, but if felt a bit different. It wasn't a toy. It was, in fact, a young neighborhood opossum that Jiggs had startled into paralysis. Ugh...
to bee -- or not to bee
1 year ago