Animal at the front door...

April 12, 2010

I’ve known what

OPOSSUMS

(they also seem to be spelt “oppossums”)

are, but this morning, as I opened the front door to go out for my morning walk, one took HIS morning walk down our front path! I immediately recognized it for what it was:

opossum 110410

The animal really had a fierce-looking face, but for all that, somehow it didn’t look threatening at all as it ambled down, and disappeared into the garden of the neighbour opposite. Yet…those fangs…and I was thinking of rodent damage…and googled it up, to find that it

actually controls rodents!

I didn’t know, however, that it is these animals that are called

Gophers

and that gives me pause, because gophers are supposed to burrow tunnels under the front lawn and generally make gardeners’ lives miserable…

So…it is a pest or not? My American friends, let me know…and I wish this one had been scared of me, and “played possum”, instead of calmly ambling off!