Post
by timmy » Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:43 am
he he! Good one, XL! And a good story re: the link, as well, thank you!
Possums: Those things are disgusting looking critters with a rat's tail and a spike hairdo. However, I have a little (little means little, BTW) respect for them. There just aren't too many marsupials around anymore outside of Australia, so I guess they've been pretty successful. But I don't' care for them, because when I was a kid, they'd up and die everywhere and stink up everything! One died under my bedroom window -- an unpleasant discovery. As a kid, I messed with cars, and one of them died under there, as well, making an unreachable stinking mess. But it was the first one that set me off against possums. (Here, for the sake of accuracy, I should mention that the animal is properly called an opossum, and possum is a corruption of the proper word.) I was about 14 years old or so, and a stinky situation evolved in our garage. One door of the garage was left open about 4 inches for our cat, and I suspect that this was the point of entry the problem used. The smell in the garage grew and grew, and one Saturday morning when my brother and I were sleeping in, we heard my Dad come into the house and announce to my Mom in a sort of "What-do-you-know" voice, "I found out what is stinking up the garage: there's a dead possum in there, and he's just crawling[/b] with maggots!"
At this point, both my brother and I shrank under the covers and played real sleepy, as neither of us wanted to get drafted for a cleanup detail.
So that's why possums don't rate highly on my list. There are some around this suburban neighborhood -- I catch them every once in a while when driving down the alley at night. But, thank goodness, none of them have died by the house. I suppose the bobcats, of which there are a few around, make short work of any possum that can't run and hide fast enough.
Raccoons: We had these things in New Mexico, in the little mountain town we lived in. Normally, it would have been a pretty harsh environment, as this was the highest town in New Mexico at 8750 feet in altitude. The town was in a narrow canyon and the growing season was short. However, raccoons had a pretty plentiful supply of food, judging from their size -- all provided courtesy of that dirtiest animal of all: man.
I'd come home at night from work and there were a few who made a regular habit of "dumpster diving" in the large trash container at the bottom of the hill below our house. The swinging headlights of my car would often send one or more scurrying up the hillside.
But it was in the summer that the raccoons were more in evidence. Our house was on the side of a mountain overlooking the town, with large windows across the front wall that went from floor to ceiling. On summer nights, our room lights would attract a sizable gathering of insects, including large moths, and the raccoons (these were big devils, maybe 15 kilos or so) would amble up on our deck and eat the insects. It was interesting, watching them stand on their hind legs and scoop up a big moth with their front paws.
We had a Siamese cat then that was maybe 3 1/2 kilos, and she was about the most fearsome cat I'd seen. She also had quite a loud voice. When those raccoons came up to the window like that, she would go absolutely berserk, howling, growling, and hissing wildly at the monster on the other side of the glass. That glass was a good thing, for despite our cat's brave show, one of those raccoons would have made short work of her. They are smart, quick, and very very clever. As I understand it, they are a relative of the bear, and they are cunning and resourceful critters.
“Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.”
saying in the British Royal Navy
