A Lesson from a Possum

A quote for the read:

"Appearances are often deceiving."
— Aesop

         During a recent visit to my grandparents’ house in the rural state of Kansas this spring, I learned a lot about possums, simply put. To begin the story, I was outside in the backyard and happened to look over and see something stumbling along in the grass. Upon closer observation I noticed that it was a possum, although it wasn’t walking right. It was missing a rear left-foot. Somehow along its way it had gotten his/her’s foot taken off violently and the tail was also a little messed up. The fur was scarce and ragged. This possum had not had an easy life, that’s for sure.

         It was slowly but surely walking towards the highway that goes along the front of the house. Seeing it limping and cars whizzing by, I knew I had to do something or it would most likely get hit. So, I grabbed my gloves and began to approach the thing not knowing how it would react. Previous experiences with possums had shown me that they like to show their teeth and hiss, which is exactly what he began to do. I inched ever closer to it while he almost curled on the ground doing everything it could to scare me away. Knowing it was injured and that it wasn’t going to do anything to me, I quickly put my left hand under it and the other on its back and picked it up. It stopped hissing but never quit showing his teeth. I walked with him across the road and into the field on the other side where I let it go. He remained where I had left him for a while, and then continued to walk away. I watched it stumble across the barren field to a small patch of trees where it disappeared.

         I learned something that day about possums because of that missing foot. Just because they might smell bad and look even worse, they’re harmless, simply trying to make their way in life. No, I don’t like them enough to the point where I’m going to have one as a pet, but I’m just sayin’ that next time you see a possum, maybe say “hi” or buy it a drink. 😉

Post #33, Published May 31, 2018 by Elijah Wasson