Let there be POSSUMS

I don't think most folks pay much attention to possums--well--unless one gets trapped in the garage or you find an alligator mouth full of 50 teeth hissing at you from a trashcan left uncovered. They're some of the sad little bodies knocked to the sides of roads by cars they didn't evolve to avoid. The long snakey tails kind of freak folks out and they can't see beyond it to a beautiful, intelligent animal that's been around in one form or other since the days of T-Rex.

Did you know a possum is a marsupial?--our own backyard kangaroo. I fell in love with posums when a tiny baby was put in my hands on the way to Florida. "Porky"  was the only one of four babies--taken from their dead mother's pouch--to survive.

For a year Porky taught me the world of possums. A possum is as smart as a dog--or a pig--but it isn't intelligence people recognize. I've known that intelligence and it's pretty amazing. It's hard wired for survival. The tiny sweet creatures I've nursed and loved are perfectly designed for lives of hunting, roaming, mating and dying after a brief time on this earth. They do no harm and leave their place better for their passing. WE should be such good stewards of the planet.

Porky left his warm bed and dinner bowl for the life of a possum--to mate and fulfill his possumly destiny. I miss him every day. If I teach a child to appreciate the backyard marsupial or show someone who is afraid of them how beautiful possums are, I'll have served my little friend well.

I most likely won't see Porky again in this life but if there is a heaven I'm betting he won't be turned away when he shows up at the door. Frankly, I wouldn't want anything to do with a heaven without possums.