Monday, May 12, 2014

unexpected visitors

 We had some unexpected visitors on Friday night. Steve and Jess, my brother and sister-in-law, dropped in for an evening of Monopoly, wine, and laughter. They live in Charlotte, so the chance to spend a random Friday evening hanging out doesn't happen too often. It was great!

I don't know why I always think I like playing Monopoly. I clearly didn't learn my lesson at Christmas. Once again, despite my best attempts at socialism...I lost. Big time.


Oh well. At least there was wine. With wine, there are no losers. ;)

Around 11:30, Stephen went to get something from their car. No sooner than he'd stepped onto our front porch, he was back. Ummm...do you guys have a new pet?

I was assuming he'd forgotten about Aidan, our ancient porch-dwelling outdoor cat. Aidan takes up residence on the glider at night. As I leaned to look through the glass door, I discovered that Stephen was actually not talking about Aidan.


Look carefully inside that kennel.

Definitely not Aidan the orange tabby cat.

If you've been pondering how the zoom on an iPhone 4s works in low lighting with the flash turned off, now you know. Stunning, isn't it?
Apparently a possum (technically an opossum, but that silent o really drives me insane, so I'm just gonna spell it like it SHOULD be spelled) decided to take a cue from Aidan and spend the night lounging on our luxurious front porch!

Stephen said that when he stepped out the door, the possum wasn't in the kennel, he was just standing on the porch. Then he got startled by Stephen/the door closing and ran in the direction opposite of Stephen...which dead ended in the kennel. Oopsies. Speaking of backing into a corner...at least it was a corner with cushy blankets?

We all had quite a time laughing at our new "pet" (and pondering where Aidan was during all this. Why didn't he scare off the possum? Or did the possum scare off Aidan? We're pretty sure the possum was actually bigger than the cat.) and thinking about things we'd never before considered: where do possums actually live? I've probably come across 183,928 possums in my lifetime, and 183,927 of them were dead on the side of a road. It never occurred to me that at some point in their life cycles they were actually alive somewhere.

I must sadly inform you that alive possums aren't any cuter than dead ones. Those are some ugly suckers. They look like large rats with huge claws, and also bear a strong resemblance to the ROUSes in The Princess Bride. So if you haven't had the pleasure of being within 6 feet of a possum in your lifetime, I can definitively say you haven't missed much. But it still made for a pretty exciting Friday night. Monopoly, wine, and possums. Just another Georgia Friday night.

15 comments:

  1. Gross! Not the human visitors of course:)

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  2. I have to tell you, I feel SO much better now that I know the whole story. I thought you took the carrier out for the terrifying creature, not that the carrier was the opportune location of choice. I really thought you had lovingly tended to this dirty, scary animal. I feel much more secure in your sanity.

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  3. Well, you're always saying you need more pets...! And I didn't know the whole "opposum/possum" thing. I always feel more informed after reading your blog :)

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  4. "With wine, there are no losers. ;)" Amen. So much truth. And that possum. I'm dying. We get them all the time at our land, and they are icky.

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  5. This reminds me of the commercial where the lady with no glasses on ushers a raccoon into her bedroom thinking it's her cat, ha!

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  6. Ick. Ick, ick, ick. I'm a little bummed that neither Matt nor your brother thought to brandish their swords to protect you and your sister-in-law. Maybe next time...

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  7. Yuckkkk! Definitely not as cute as a tabby cat!!

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  8. Ha, I just read Amanda's comment and I've never seen the commercial she is talking about, but I'm still sitting here laughing at the thought of it...

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  9. My parents invited some church friends over for Mother's Day dinner. It was an older lady and her middle age son who apparently lives with her now. He said O-possum. Like pronounced the o, and not to be funny. As if his dress socks and sandals didn't make me leery enough he goes and does that. He is from up north, so I'm going to tell myself that's why he doesn't know.

    We have opossums that hang out around our house quite often. It's the only thing my parents' dog will attack.

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  10. I had never seen a possum until I visited Ryan in Nebraska, and when he said one was on the porch, I ran out, thinking it was going to be all adorable like a raccoon. I ran out as he yelled at me to stop and skidded in front of the most hideous thing I had ever seen, which then barred it's teeth and did a hiss thing at me. I screamed, actually scared of it. Ryan still tells the story to this day. Also, Monopoly? Why??? You need Ticket to Ride, girl!

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  11. Hahaha, I thought that was a ferret at first! I have a possum family that lives in this tree behind my back fence. They drive my dogs crazy, and me too. They are UGLY.

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  12. If I never encounter a live possum in my lifetime, well I'm ok with that. They look nasty smushed along the side of the road...no need to be scared half to death by one, nope no thank you!!!

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  13. Eeew!! Are possums southern animals? I feel like I've never seen one in real life!

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  14. Possums are so gross. So gross.

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