Last week, before work, I needed something from the garage. I flipped on the patio light to go get it, and heard a big rustling noise.

I caught sight of a furry bottom and a naked tail walking slowly away. Of COURSE, I grabbed the camera. But the possum was very well camouflaged, and my camera couldn’t focus.

Of course I told Chris about it, when I made my 11 o’clock wake-up call from work.

“Baby! I saw a speckle-bottom possum in the yard this morning!”

“Did he leave?” Apparently, Chris had a low opinion of rodent-tailed creatures living in our backyard.

That is, until the next day. He caught site of my speckle-bottom possum on the neighbor’s roof—in the daylight! Then his marshmallow center took over, because the possum is cute.

He called me to tell me about it. “Did you know that the possum in the only marsupial in America? It’s not a rodent. In fact, it eats rats and mice. And insects. They have a very low body temperature, so they can’t carry rabies. They are actually good to have around.”

“See? I told you it was cute”

“Yeah, maybe it will come back to our yard.”

“It says that possums don’t like to be out in the daylight. And they are not so good at climbing. I wonder how it got on the roof?”

“He looks kind of sad. I wonder how they will get him off the roof? He must have gone up there because they have dogs in the backyard. He ran to get away from the dogs and now he can’t get down.”

About an hour later, a police car drove up and stopped in front of our house. Chris was feeling a bit uneasy. Maybe the neighbors, whom we didn’t really know, had taken umbrage with his photographing their house.

The policeman walked over to their house and came out again. Chris did his best to look busy at his computer while he drove away.

But then, an animal control van came and caught our possum.

We are afraid to find out what happens after that.