Involuntary Nature Study

Chers Amis,

There are a few phrases you do not want to hear however nature friendly you are. "Mom, there is an opossum outside our door," qualifies.
"No, Pippin, there couldn't be a possum out there. That is the doggie run. The dog would let us know. Come back here and do your math."
"Really, Mom, there is a possum - right THERE," he insisted, pulling his head back through the doggie door. "I think it's dead."
"Pippin! Are you telling the tru. . . Oh. My. Yup, a possum."

Thus began the official "Is it REALLY dead countdown." Scarlett informed us that possums can play dead for over an hour. We did not get very much done during the next 59 mins. due to the plate glass window, two-way child-sized doggie door and close and tempting proximity to one allegedly, possible, hopefully dead possum.

Now, as you all probably have discerned by now, I have come to appreciate most of God's creations. Flying stinging insects are still low on my list of favorites, but snakes, lizards, even spiders fascinate me. Possums don't. I have memories of growing up in a very different type of woods where possums regularly tipped over and ate our trash. Nearly every day after school I had to pick up possum gnawed refuse. This continued until a cross-bow toting friend of a friend came over one afternoon. It wasn't pretty.

This new possum chez nous was quite small and quite dead. RIP. Luckily, my dear love of a husband came home unexpectedly for lunch that day and he and the kidlets disposed of the carcass. You know you are a homeschooler when you make sure they mark the location of the shoebox grave so that next year you can clean up the bones and use them for a unit on the skeletal system. Here is a coloring page and word search on opossums from the Oppossum Society of America. We did not sketch our surprise visitor, but we won't forget him!

-- Marjorie

PS - We found what we think is an opossom pelvis in a hollow tree, any ideas on how to determine if it is from a possom or a raccoon? We have both on our property.