YOU GUYS
As may have become clear through my posts, I live in approximately the middle of nowhere. There are bears around, and TONS of deer, and raccoons, and there are groundhogs and rabbits that live in our yard, and there is a big hole of an as-yet-unidentified animal in our front lawn.
Buddy (center) in his younger days
There are also opossums, which are weird little guys that play dead and carry their young around on their back and hang from trees by their tails and live their lives at night under the cover of darkness.
Well.
The opossum population now has one fewer member.
BECAUSE I HIT ONE WITH MY CAR
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Buddy, earlier this winter, thinking over future career choices after graduating from New York Opossum University (NYOU)
There I was, just driving home in the deep, dark, black of night. We had our headlights on and were driving the requisite 30 mph. There are no streetlights because, again, we live in the middle of nowhere.
And then what should I see shining ahead of me but the GLOWING EYES OF AN INQUISITIVE OPOSSUM RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.
GET OUT OF THE ROAD, OPHIE! (Buddy’s sister Ophelia, lost last year in a tragic garbage truck incident)
There was no time to do anything but carefully center the car over it and yell, “JUST DON’T MOVE, LITTLE GUY!”**
But…
he moved.
Buddy’s graduation photo (2017)
And there were quite a few thumps. Sister and I screamed and stamped our feet while Brother T laughed at us and also wept.*
I hope Buddy the Opossum had a good, happy life. I hope he got lots of free rides on Mama Opossum’s back, that he played dead and tricked all his opossum friends, and that he loved hanging upside down from tree branches. I know there was some confusion at the end over whether his degree in Russian literature would come in useful, but as it turns out, it doesn’t really matter.
Buddy is predeceased by his sister Ophelia, all eighteen of his brothers except Louie, both of his parents, his grandparents, nearly all of his aunts and uncles and all but three cousins. All were killed in car accidents. In lieu of flowers, please subscribe to my blog.
Until tomorrow, Buddy.***
Buddy the Opossum, third from left, having a great afternoon (Ophelia the Opossum second from left)
*or words to that effect
**or something to that effect
***when I pass your dead carcass on my way up to the post office****
****AGHHHHHHHHHHH
PS: Look what I found as a result of writing this post!
Alex's Garden Studio 