Hello There Opossum.

Have you seen that Geico commercial about the opossum? No? Well you're in luck here it is.
 


I love this commercial. I seriously can't stop laughing after every time I see it. "He's probably just playing dead...Yup. There he is."

Last night around 11pm I forced Killer outside once more before bedtime. We've been having some trouble with her peeing inside - a completely different issue. But in order to get a better grip on it I take her out right before I get in bed, and most of the time that means me waking her up, which she's never happy about.
We have some pine straw out by our back fence that she likes to go in. As she's sniffing around looking for a good place to pee, she all of a sudden gets a shark fin. I have yet to capture this response on film. She does it whenever she gets scared. She raises all the fur along her spine, and it looks just like a shark fin (or a mohawk), hence the name.
She then commences to bark with a low growl (her usual scared bark). She's not exactly sure what she sees so she tries to check it out but is still quite scared so she keeps a good distance. At first I thought she saw a snake, because our home inspector saw a snake in that area back in May. I was so proud of her because we've been trying desperately to teach her to be afraid of snakes. So I ran over to get her (I didn't want the snake to strike at her). I bend down to pick her up and happen to be looking right in the eyes of an opossum hiding behind our tree.
I scoop up the K-pup and rush inside. I tell Brad, "Oh hey. There's an opossum in our yard." He says, "What?!" Having spent half my life on a farm in North Carolina I've seen everything from skunks to coyotes on the front porch, but Brad was pretty excited to see a LIVE opossum up close and not just driving by a smashed one on the road.
Knowing how unfriendly they can be, I suggested we take Killer out to the front yard to pee (since the opossum distracted her from her duties) and leave the little critter alone. But Brad didn't "want it to have babies in our backyard", so he set out to expel it.
He walked up to the tree as I'm coaching him not to get too close all the while reminding him of how large a rabies shot needle would be. He saw it and said, "Ohhh...It's kinda cute." "Don't let it deceive you," I say, "it's mean."

The poor thing was pretty scared itself. I don't know how it got in our backyard. I suppose it climbed that tree and up over of 7 foot fence.
Brad grabbed a rake that was out on our back porch and opened the gate. The closer he gets to it the more it hisses. He proceeds to prod it with the rake. Mr. (or Mrs.) Opossum does not want to move, and in retaliation digs it's claws into the ground and refuses to move. It was quite the sight. The opossum holding on tight, and Brad almost turning it over on its side from pushing it so hard. "Come on you stupid thing, just leave." Go back to your home! (Anyone??)

This is pretty blurry, but here's a close-up from the above picture of the opossum. Its mouth is open, and it's hissing.

Well, the opossum finally gives up and nonchalantly walks along the fence and out the gate. Brad then chases it out onto the street, rake in hand. He claims he didn't want it to be close enough just to climb back into our yard, but I'm pretty sure he just needed a victory lap. The opossum ran down the street and into a neighbor's yard (sorry neighbor).

We close the gate and bring Killer back out so that she can finally pee before bed. She had to sniff all over the backyard, making sure the opossum was gone. At the time she seemed to be on the hunt, perhaps wanting to catch it after building up her confidence waiting inside. But all day today she has been so apprehensive to go out into the yard. She just stands on the edge of the deck sniffing the air. I'm pretty sure she's nervous she'll find another intruder.
Honestly I'm glad she got so scared of the opossum. If she had decided to try and expel it herself, she would have been picking a losing fight.

And just because our little scaredy-cat is so cute right now, here's a picture for you. Half asleep but making sure no one's going to take her new duck.

Brad and Courtney