Ahh, That Country Living!

We Love the fresh air, the mountain views and the wild life. Yes, country living is great! Nothing is more inspiring than a beautiful summer sunset (or sunrise), looking at the night time show of twinkling stars while laying out on a blanket in the backyard and sometimes we even get surprise visits from our wildlife friends. We have seen many birds of prey including red tailed hawks.

Garden snakes that ventured into our back yard.

One morning, about a year or so ago, I was fortunate enough to see a whole litter of fox pups frolicking in the front yard.

You could say Tom and I enjoy all kinds of animals, and we don't usually mind uninvited guests on the property. However, we do have our limits!!! As many of you know, we have a wonderful dog named Trip. He is enthusiastic, lovable, curious and playful. This empty nest mom babies her pets and so Trip has two beds in the house. One by the T.V. and one in our bedroom. Trip snuggles in and relaxes on his bed while Tom and I guard the house at night. One morning we had the sliding glass door open with the screen door letting in the cool early morning breezes, when Trip suddenly raced through the screen door his curiosity peeked by something outside. In essence, he created his own doggy-door which we have yet to repair. I tell you this to let you know we've had to reconsider our 'open door' policy. Tom woke up the other morning and leisurely read the paper that I had left for him on the bed. He was just finishing up when he looked over at Trip, who was not stretched out snoring on his bed in his typical fashion, but sitting up, alert and focused at the base of my dresser. Tom looks over to see what Trip is looking at and sees a furry lump.....'What the heck is that?', he thinks as he hesitantly gets up and reaches for a security stick we have by the side of the bed. He prods the mass, which doesn't move. As he gets closer, he sees that it is a possum, curled up and playing dead. Not really sure how to approach our visitor as it was laying on it's side, mouth wide open and razor teeth exposed with a snarled expression on it's face, Tom slowly and stealthily moves forward. With the stick extended as far as it will go he rolls the possum onto my robe, which was left on my side of the bed, and drags it outside to the far back portion of the back yard. He and Trip then high tailed it back into the safety of the house. I was disappointed the possum was gone by the time I returned from my early morning swim practice, and frustrated that Tom didn't get a picture, but he assures me that I have found accurate portrayals of the possum, including the picture with the possum showing his big sharp teeth. Needless to say, we have reconsidered how useful those cool morning breezes are, air-conditioning works just fine thank you!

Trip


Possum actor reenacting scene.