Why am I beginning my blog with a possum video? The answer would be to share a story about last evening. The beginning actually starts 7 years ago when we moved into this house. Before we realized that every animal known to mankind, living in the Western hemisphere, resided in our neighborhood.
Re-wind: We were moving into the house in mid-May, somewhere in the same week as the Frog Jumps were going on, in Angels Camp. The temps already in the triple digit range. One evening, taking a break from unpacking boxes, I stepped out of the house, walked across the backyard patio, sitting down upon the cement steps that curve along the entire portion of the lower terrace. I heard rustling amongst the dry grass in the upper backyard (this is long before the outdoor gang moved in with us). Turning towards the sound I was startled and amazed to see a large Amazonian creature walking casually towards me. It was a possum. She was a very large girl ambling along, not deterred in the least by my presence. She kept walking towards her destination, which was a bird bath, filled with water, directly behind me. Possums are so homely that they are cute. She drank her water, turned, and left taking the same route she had walked a few moments before. This was my first introduction to her. I later named her the Barefoot Contessa because of her enormous sized feet. Later, she would bring her baby with her. I named him Shoeless Joe (as in Jackson).
As the outdoor gang began to gather and take refuge in our backyard they would share their food with the Contessa and Shoeless Joe. And then the Contessa and Joe gradually stopped making an appearance. Until... last night. I had crawled into bed rather early for a Friday night as I was exhausted. I fell asleep as Jeff surfed the net catching up with the day's headline news.
I woke with a start around 10 o'clock. One of the outdoor gang, either Buttercup or Bella, who are new moms, began screeching at the top of their lungs, like they were on fire. Jax and Anna Chan jumped down off the bed, ran over to the window and began barking. This went on and off for about 5 minutes. Then I heard footsteps outside the eyebrow window, at the head of our bed, they were soft, but the sound of crushing brush as they walked could be clearly heard. Jax and Anna repeated their barking but were now jumping on my pillow to look out the window. Which only Jax can see out of. Landing on my head, Jax was apologetic, as I swatted him on his butt, pulling his 45 lb. body weight off of me. Geez, Louise!
I sat up. Jax walked over, plopped down on my lap, Anna burrowed back beneath the covers. Silence. Ahhh. Whatever it was, was gone. And then...
I should preface this with our neighborhood boys, 4 of them/pre-teen, were camping outdoors on their front lawn.
The next sounds I hear are Johnny, his younger brother, RJ and Jordon yelling at the top of their voices for their dads. It was.... Dad, dad... all 4 calling their parents out, which brought out their dogs; one a small cross between a yorky and something else. The other is Koda, a golden retriever that Risotto (our outdoor cat), chases off our property at every opportunity. Both of these, along with all the neighborhood dogs are barking while the boys are still screaming. It's a possum! It's a possum! He's huge. HUGE!
I guess Joe had wandered into their tent. The next thing I hear is the sound of Joe running through our side yard as fast as his feet will carry him. He cleared the fence and was out of sight. Following this, Koda was running, but stopped outside our window as I am sure he knew if he cleared the fence Risoto would be all over him like white on rice.
The boys are continuing to yell in terror, their parents are yelling at their dogs who are running up and down the street in confusion. Yelling at the boys to calm down. I found it all greatly amusing and was laughing out loud. Jeff continued to snore and was oblivious to everything going on around him. Too funny.
Jax and Anna were exhausted from the drama and fell back to sleep immediately while I grabbed a sweater and wrapped it around me, getting up, getting a bottle of water, then going online. I eventually made it back to bed somewhere around 1 AM.
Jeff was up early and on his computer when I woke up about 6:30 AM to the sound of the lions roaring for their breakfast. Along with the outdoor gang were loudly protesting that I hadn't fed them at their regular time. Jeff tooled off to work while I poured out breakfast for the indoor/outdoor gangs.
Jax and Anna are napping. Although, a neighbor is having a tree cutter, cutting down one of their trees outside the master bedroom. Another, is cranking up their boat motor as I'm sipping French roast, creating a grocery list of what I'll be taking to Dave and Erin's for Easter luncheon tomorrow. I think I'll be bringing a couple of loaves French bread that I'll oven toast. To this, I will add a mixture of melted butter, fresh garlic and parsley. Slice and serve. And, I think guacamole devilled eggs.
It's time for more coffee... and some tunes.
Whatever your weekend plans are... go out and enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment