Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Opossum, my possum

Last night was not a restful night. Around 1 o'clock, after you finally got to bed and dreams were fast approaching, I heard our dog start to make some interesting sounds.

For some reason, Ryker likes to barf. Ok, maybe he doesn't like to, but he seems to do it a lot. Many times it is to get rid of some plastic he found to eat, and I am oh, so happy that he decides to rid himself of that instead of digest. However some times he just...throws up.

So he was making his tail-tale signs last night, so I quickly ushered him outside where he promptly started chowing down on grass, leaves, what-have-you.

WHEN...all of the sudden he went a little ballistic on the grill. Joe called him to come back and Ryker became even more determined. A few seconds passed and a tiny hairy thing LAUNCHED itself from the grill. It was a baby possum!!! IIICCKKKKKK!!!!!!Ryker, being a dog, thinks this is the best thing ever! Joe and I being humans, think ICK! again and begin to worry about rabies, bites and worst of all...MOMMA Possum.

Ryker toys with it a bit, gets it into the grass...and yep, you guessed it...the little guy 'played possum.' Meanwhile Joe and I are calling franticly to Ryker to leave the darn thing alone and come back in the house...because really, if there's baby, there's bound to be momma.

He FINALLY decides he'll leave his new toy, although he's not sure Joe has his priorities straight. We usher puppy inside...where we wait for the momma to come out and also see to make sure that the baby isn't already dead...just mostly dead, or playing dead. And yep, the baby starts to ever so slightly inch towards the sidewalk, raise it's head...and by that point convinced it's ok, we go back to bed.

Dogs!

THEN, around 4 in the morning...Joe adjusts and sends his 30 oz. water cup flying between the night stand and the bed. Ugh...should we just get up now? Really, what's the deal??

Hope your night was more restful than ours!

3 comments:

Carolyn said...

What a chaotic night! But it does make a funny story :)

Hope tonight is better!

KarenD said...

Ian woke up at 3:30 wanting to play. I finally got him back down by 4:15 and then he was up again at 5:30... just in time for me to fall back asleep only to be abruptly awoken again. Something must've gotten into our puppies and kiddoes. Was it a full moon last night?

Lydia said...

Well, my cats kept me awake, but THAT'S no surprise. Good training, I supposed.

And that story is hilarious!! I want to see a baby opossum! Poor little guy getting scared out of his wits by a big fluffy dog! And how cool that you got to witness him playing dead, and then "reviving" afterward. I don't know about you, but most opossums I see are D-E-D dead. No playing about it! :)