The oddest thing happened last week. It was around midnight and I was standing at the door of my place and talking to Mouse, my fat Siamese cat, about coming inside. The area was dark but semi-lighted, and Mouse was sitting next to a wooden fence about five or six feet away. And then from stage left an opossum appeared, just casually walking along, no hurry. He passed within inches of Mouse, and there was no hissing, no growling, no arching of the back…nothing.

The opossum exited stage right. He looked old and ragged. A somewhat ugly, icky-looking thing. Black eyes, pink ears, white fuzzy coat, long rat tail…yeesh.

I learned after reading the Wikipage that they only live about four years so he must have been three or three and a half. I’m guessing that Mouse sensed how old he was and assessed right away that he was no threat, and that’s why he was so calm about it.