o·pos·sum [uh-pos-uhm, pos-uhm]
1. a prehensile-tailed marsupial, Didelphis virginiana, of the eastern U.S., the female having an abdominal pouch in which its young are carried: noted for the habit of feigning death when in danger.
2. any of various animals of related genera.
So, the other day I walked outside to our backyard to take some pictures of our newly finished deck for my mom and noticed a very strange smell. I just assumed that it was coming from somewhere in the neighborhood but as I walked further out into our yard it faded. When I went back towards our house and stood on the deck the smell was strong and clearly coming from somewhere close by. After doing some investigating I saw some animal fur strands stuck on the lattice that we had just recently had installed around the bottom of the deck. I also noticed that there were flies flying out from under the deck. It was clear that something had crawled under our deck and died. Poor Joe had to come home from a long day at work and take care of the smelly problem. It was harder then you would think since the lattice had to be pried off in order to reach a rake under the deck to get to it, and not to mention it was 100+ degrees outside. Let me just say, all I was doing was shining the flashlight under the deck so he could see and I almost barfed and fell over from the smell. When I looked over at Joe he had his shirt pulled up over his nose. I know the odor was much stronger for him. I am so lucky to have a husband that is willing to take care of unfortunate mishaps like that and he didn't even complain about having to do it.
Here is the deck that we had the dead opossum under.
10 comments:
Thanks for your compliments--although I just threw up in my mouth reading your post and remembering how putrid it was. I shudder every time I remember what it felt like to reach underneath and grab it. Gross.
Yuck. That is SO nasty. I'm so sorry. The new deck looks great though.
So are you sure the opossum wasn't just playing dead and being an opossum? How did the Father's Day present go over by the way?
Eewwwww. Poor opossum, poor Joe. Sounds like the feigning dead didn't turn out as planned.
joe, was there a walk down memory lane regarding opossums in anaheim for you?
Funny Holly--I actually felt sorry for the little guy/gal. It was the opposite feeling I usually had for the big ugly ones that lived between the freeway wall and our back fence in Anaheim that would eat the chickens from Marsh Farms that we'd hatch in our incubator.
Jon and Jenn--I thought about the possibility of him/her playing dead but then I thought, "wait, playing dead usually doesn't include a horrible stench and a belly full of maggots. Nope, that's actually BEING dead."
I will now go throw up.
Oh that is just not fun, so sorry. The deck looks fab. though!
Is anyone else confused about the way that opossum is spelled...why isn't it just possum? so confused....and do some people actually call in an "oh-possum", I always though it was just possum.
GROSS!!!
Welcome to TEXAS!!!
BUT-the deck looks great! Did you guys do it or have it installed?? We need to get a cover over our cement bare slab!!
That is pretty nasty Liz. Yippee for husbands! Your deck looks great! How fun!
Post a Comment