The Prodigal Possum Returns

Linda and I took a nice walk down to the Potomac River this evening. Returning home, we noticed Edsel had apparently been out for a walk too.

Upon seeing us, however, he stuck his head in a pot, rolled over on his side, and played possum. He did such a good job of it, we wondered if he was sick.

 To give you an idea of how much he has grown, I thought I’d get a picture of Linda with Edsel. “Kneel down next to him,” I said. “I’ll take your picture.” Linda didn’t seem too sure about that. “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “He has a really slow metabolism. Besides, there’s a mesh fence between you.”

So Linda knelt down. “He’s showing his teeth,” she said. Sure enough, when she got a little closer Edsel must’ve figure out the ol’ “playing possum” trick wasn’t working. He pulled his head out of the pot and bared his teeth. Boy does he have impressive teeth!   Linda proceeded to get up and move away.

I couldn’t get the camera to focus on Edsel because it focused on the fence instead. So I had to take the picture looking down over the fence. That’s too bad, because you can’t really see his teeth. You can see he doesn’t look too happy, though.

Other than his head, his body still wasn’t moving. “Maybe he really is sick,” I said. “I think there’s something wrong. Maybe I should poke him with a stick.”

“Leave the poor animal alone!” Linda reprimanded. “He’s just upset that we’re bothering him. Come back in an hour and see if he is still there.”

He wasn’t.

Comments

[Laura Korban]

This sounds like my kind of nature encounter...unfortunately my family doesn't like to participate...party poopers.