…possum. Anyone who knows Sean knows he is not only an animal lover, but loves all creatures. If a spider gets in the house he is in protected territory. He is not allowed to stay, but he is afforded a ride to the back patio. Several years ago a neighbor showed up looking for Sean. She had discovered a baby opossum next to her house and because the weather had been dreadfully hot she was worried he would not survive. Sean couldn’t get there fast enough to retrieve the baby and brought him into the garage. (We will refer to the opossum as baby as male babies are called Jacks and female babies are called Jills and we did not know if the baby was a Jack or a Jill) We called a local organization that rescued all sorts of animals to see if we could bring the baby to them. He was so tiny that we felt without some type of nurturing he would not live. The person who answered the phone immediately asked if it could open its’ eyes. We prodded him a little and he opened his squinty little eyes and seemed to be annoyed we woke him up. But yes he opened his eyes. We were told as long as his eyes are open he will be fine. His Mother had probably just tossed him off her back and he was now on his own. They suggested to wait until evening when it started to get dark and take him into a wooded area and let him go. This way depriving a meal for the hawks or eagles. Sounded like a good plan. Sean had him in a box in the garage where he was safe. Awhile later I went to do a load of wash and what to my surprise was sitting on top of the washer but the box and the baby. I questioned Sean and he said he’ll be more comfortable where it’s cool, the garage is hot. He did put a top on the box to make sure he would not get out. Well, this teeny tiny defenseless critter climbed up the side of the box, knocked the lid off and was gone. Oh boy, we turned the house upside down looking for him. I don’t feel we missed a nook or a cranny in our search. Could not find him, day 1 passes, day 2 passes. I’m frantically trying to find him to toss him out like his Mother did and Sean is worried he has nothing to eat so he sets out water and apple slices. He would come out at night and eat apples, so we put apples in the laundry room, we waited and towards morning closed the door. More of the apple was eaten so now we knew he was in the laundry room. The next night we moved the apples into the garage and again towards morning shut the door. Success he ate more apple, so now we know he’s in the garage. That was very reassuring, as up until we knew he was not patrolling the house, every little noise or any movement of clothes or blankets would make you feel he was about to appear and perhaps bite you. He hid out in the garage for a few more days until one day he was walking along a counter top and Sean scooped him up and secured him until dark. Sean took him across our street into the woods where he probably searched for apples and lived happily ever after.