As a lifetime member of the "look who's coming to dinner crowd" I not
only laughed but understood and applauded your kind heart. Years ago,
after battling cancer and losing my home in a house fire and while the
insurance company drug their feet over it all, I found that our family
had no place to go. With 4 kids we had an assortment of pets, a couple
dogs, a couple of cats, a skunk, a monkey and my son's reptiles
(snakes, lizards and turtles). It was not like we could waltz into the
local Holiday Inn. But as they say, God does not close a door without
opening a window.

My grandmother had owned 320 acres and had recently died leaving an
older trailer sitting on the property. This seem like a God sent while
we waited on our place to be bulldozed and rebuilt, which would be a
couple of months.

In the mist of all the fear, pain and sorrow God decided to send a
little laughter into my life. For one cold and restless night I found
a baby opossum setting on my floor looking up at me with wide little
eyes. He was too young to be on his own, but his hissing and barred
teeth fore told of his ability to defend his furry little self. So I
filled the cat bowls and let him eat his fill. Thus began the uneasy
friendship of two not so similar species, though I did understand his
fears and even his need. So each night he came to me wary and watchful
in the wee hours my furry little friend ate his fill. After his first
trip I hunted for how he came to us and found under the kitchen sink a
hole around the drain and he had found his way in. I did not close it
off but allowed him to continue his night time feedings.

After my house was completed, my dad and step-mother arrived planning
to stay in grandmother's trailer for a while. In the rush to move back
and to help them get settled I forgot about my furry little visitor.
Until one day in passing my step-mother complained about the huge rat
that must be in the place somewhere and I said I never saw a rat one
while I was here. She said, "Well there is one now, it has chewed big
gnawing marks all the way around my plastic containers trying to get to
the food inside". And she spoke an uneasy feeling came to me, I asked
her to let me see what she was talking about and as I started to laugh
hysterically, she looked at me with concern. I said that I thought I
knew who her visitor was. I explained about the opossum boy and our
midnight feedings. Well she was made of less sterner stock and wanted
no part of my opossum in her house and sent my dad to covering the hole
forever.

But even closing off the hole in the floor did not send the little guy
away. He knew that his food was found here.... and he did not plan to
move away...LOL We had a couple of grandma's barn cats and I had her
continue feeding them. So each day she put food out for them and each
morning my dad would find the opossum feeding at the cat bowls. My dad
would just gripe and complain about buying high dollar cat food for
cats that should be mousing and my fat-butted free loader. LOL because
by this time he was a grown opossum who sat side-by-side eating with
the cats
LOL For years my dad complained and threatened to wring the
free loaders neck, and for years he sat out an extra bowl of food, for
Kendra's free loading rat, as he was forever know... LOL

Kendra Lausman

[Posted in FML 5899]