Caged Animal

Robin invested in a cage (trap) to catch all the opossums and raccoons that raid the cat food at night on our patio. The city has assured him they will come for the caged animals and let them loose in a more natural setting. They have posed a problem in the past. A raccoon chewed through an eave on the house and had her babies in our attic. They can be pesky critters, but even though I'm revolted by this trapped opossum, its big black eyes pull at my heartstrings.

He's trapped and scared and I don't like having to witness it. Sure, it didn't bother me enough to refrain from taking his picture while in helpless captivity. That's a real blog pitfall. We will sacrifice a lot for the sake of the blog.

I guess my aversion to opossums started in my teens. My dad had a beard at the time and was driving a very old 1949 Pontiac with a sun visor over the windshield. You've got to visualize this. He was driving home from work one night and saw an opossum. Knowing how much I love cats he assumed I'd fall equally in love with this hideous creature. He stopped the car, chased the thing until he caught it, then drove with it hanging out the window and my dad clutching its tail.

My brother, Gene, was the first to be humiliated by this sight. Dad drove to the 7-11 where Gene worked and pulled right into the lighted parking lot with the opossum hanging from his window. I don't think Gene acknowledged this man as his father.

His next stop was home where I was doing homework in my bedroom. He knocked on the door and told me he had a critter for me. Expecting a furry, soft cat, I opened my door in a hurry. What I saw was this gnarly opossum baring his teeth. Then Dad laughed, told me the story of how he caught it and how he brought it home. I was mortified. But I still think Gene got the worst end of it.

So, I'm not overly fond of opossums. You just don't see cuddly opossum plush toys. They just don't have the look that endears us to them. Their hair resembles mine when it's been wet and allowed to dry naturally into an ugly haphazard mess. And that hairless tail! How awful is that? They have absolutely no redeeming qualities. Yet, the sight of that poor thing in a cage, helpless and full of fear, has touched a chord of pity in me. It's not his fault that his lot in life was to be a hideous opossum. He can't help how he looks.

I'll be going through this again. Once the city picks him up, we will get the cage ready to trap the other cat food thieves. It might even be harder on me next time because you do see plush toys in the likeness of raccoons.