Visitor

Today's an absolutely gorgeous day, and so I let Madeline outside where she and Pudding (the cat next door) are sitting in their respective yards having a nice, peaceful staring contest. But I am keeping a careful eye on them and the backyards just in case our furry visitor from yesterday decides to return. So when I got home from work on Friday afternoon, Madeline was yowling to go outside, but because it was windy, she was yowling to come back inside after just a few minutes (wind makes her undecided). I was in a good mood, so I indulged her, letting her in and out, in and out. I was grading a paper in the living room and heard her meowing on the deck, but I wanted to reach a stopping point, so I didn't come right away. When I did, I saw that she wasn't meowing to come back inside, but rather she was fixated on something in the yard. I was expected a neighborhood cat, but instead it was a possum with at least three babies! Luckily I grabbed Madeline just as she was making a move to bolt into the yard. I think possums are rather icky, but the possum was just ambling along in no hurry to leave my yard, so I went in and grabbed my camera. By the time I returned, it wasn't as close, but I still got some decent pictures.



This Canon PowerShot has a nice zoom for the money! See the babies?





The possum left my yard momentarily, slipping under the fence and actually leaving behind a baby in the process (who wandered just a bit before it finally scrambled under the fence after its mother). But then she came back, this time with the babies on her underside instead of back. They hung out by the fence for a while, before crossing my yard and heading over to Rachel's yard.