A boy and His......Possum?

Seriously?

Owen and his BFF, Lucy, have been playing outside all week in the nice weather. And his BFF Lucy thinks she's a cat. Or a fox. So far she has brought us two dead birds, a dead mouse, and her latest......a possum.

Imagine my shock when Owen walked in the house with what looked like a very wet, dead, bloody, rat in his hand that he took out of Lucy's mouth. He refused to let go of it, so we ran it back outside and my screams finally got through to him and he placed it on the table, where we soon figured out it was a possum playing.....well.....possum.

Then the possum stopped playing possum and I tried to keep it from falling off the table with a stick while Owen went to get me a bucket. He brought back multiple things including a frisbee, a shovel, and what I think he was hoping would be a leash......none of which would trap the possum. Bless his heart.

Fast forward ten minutes full of internal cussing in my head and voila?

We have a Possum in a bucket!

And I'm on the phone with Todd who is telling me I have to warm up towels and hold him close to my body and get him warm or he will die.

TODD?!

The same TODD who used to threaten to rip Lucy's face off......wants me to spend my afternoon saving the possum that nearly gave me a heart attack.

Well played, Todd.

He knows I have a weakness for animals. Any animals. All animals. I used to have a pet iguana for crying out loud.

So Owen and I did what he said. We warmed up Possum and left him nestled in towels in a box while we went about our afternoon.

And I went to shower later that day and couldn't find Owen when I got out.

I should have known.

They were good friends by this point.
(Face scratches are from an unrelated skateboarding incident.)

And at dusk, when we knew the possum was going to be okay, we walked him down to the woods and creek and Owen released him to the wild.

And then he amped up his requests for a hamster.
Any hamster. Please a hamster. Since we can't keep the possum, can he please have a hamster. He promises to clean the cage. He'll be good to the hamster. He won't drop the hamster.

I'm not a hamster fan, so instead we're begging Todd for one of these.

So far his answer is not right now, maybe in the future.

Which makes my animal loving son make this face.

And I'm worried Todd will divorce me if I "surprise" this family with another animal, so ummmmmmmmmm Grandma and/or Nana, can one of you be a dear and grab a guinea pig next time you come visit. Todd can't divorce you and Owen will love you FOREVER.

And he promises to clean the cage.....

I may need to get that promise in writing first though.

Call us when you're on your way. :)

Just Kidding Todd. Sort of.