He's Baaaaaaack!

Well, as often happens this time of year, I have a young opossum. Shelby's dog found him in her yard.  We don't know how he got separated from his mother, but he was dirty, bony, and anemic.  A bath and a week at the all-you-can-eat buffet has solved those problems - he went from under 6 ounces to 9 ounces in only one week!

I sacrificed to get this picture.  He's not one of the friendly ones; he's quite spooky, and as I was taking the picture he jumped away from me and dove under the guest bed.  The guest bed is a trundle bed, one under the other.  In order to pull the lower bed out to try to get under it, I would have had to drag my heavy loom out of the way.  I didn't want to go through that - so I went to the barn and got the small live trap and put his dinner in it.  Unfortunately - he wasn't quite heavy enough to spring it.  The next night I cleaned and greased the trap and tried again - and once again, he got his dinner without springing the trap.  So the next day I dragged the loom out of the way, started to gently slide the lower bed out, and spotted him.  I rather unceremoniously darted my hand in and grabbed his tail and literally hauled his butt out of there.

And I have another guest - after a two-week hiatus, PolterGeist is back!  On the 16th, I had to run down to the cottage for some glue - and there was a huge pile of peacock feathers from the other side of the room piled up behind the workbench!  I put them back.

The next day I went to look - and he had been really busy.

Some feathers, both whisk brooms and a dustpan, and foam flooring scraps from the next room.  But then I got a ruler and started digging stuff out from under the shelf.

That's quite the pile.  There's leftover felt from the griffin, some craft foam.  The artificial leaves have me confused - I don't know where he got those.  There was a hot glue stick and a votive candle.  The ribcage from a small toy skeleton.  A real mouse skeleton that had been on the windowsill across the room (that annoyed me a little - he had ruined the delicate skull). A small piece of wood and chunks of floor mat.

What's odd is that in order to get to the box that held the craft foam (which is stored under my workbench in the back room - and the lid was slightly open) he had to walk within inches of the pillowcase lying open on the floor that held some nice soft wool (I hadn't put it away since finishing the griffin).  

Since then, we've had the heat wave that has been hitting across the country and he's taken it easy - just a few feathers, the whisk brooms, and the rubber floor mat strips (he really likes the crenelated edges from the sides - there were 7 of them today (I keep them with the other foam oddments).

Speaking of the heat wave, yesterday I felt sorry for Miss Sassy Raccoon.  The heat index was 107 and it was sooooo sticky and humid.  So I cleaned and refilled the water dish out there and even put some ice in it.  When I looked out, she was lying wrapped around it, with her front legs and chest having a nice cool soak.

One more random picture.  I read a suggestion somewhere that you should - preferably daily, although I don't - try to take a picture of something that pleases you.  It's to help train you brain to look for something it might like - important when a lot of the whole world seems to be in the doldrums.  A few days ago it was un-horrible enough that I got out early and did some weed whacking.  I realize it would be more efficient to hire someone to keep my land in check rather than do it myself.  But one - I'm territorial.  I don't want someone else messing with my land.  And two - if someone had just gone around with a riding lawnmower, this wee beauty would have had its head chopped off, instead of being admired and carefully spared.

And now the cats are urging me to turn off the laptop, get off my arse, and give them their dinners.