Possum Tales

 It rained yesterday and turned very cold. Everybody was cranky all day. Well, except for Mr. BoJangles. Sometimes his perky attitude gets on my nerves. Today isn't much better, but at least it is not raining. Mom is not feeling well and Eddie got in big trouble with her!

This is Cujo again. Eddie has been itchy for some time now and has to take these long baths. Because of this, Mom has been treating him special. It has become really annoying to the rest of us dogs, with the exception of Bo. Well, today he pushed Mom to her limit. He refused to go out side and peed on the floor. She scolded him and tried to make him go outside. 

He looked at her and just walked away. He asked me what she thought he needed to go out for since he has just peed on the floor. I had to agree with him that it did seem kind of senseless. I didn't tell him that it made me a little happy that he was in trouble. He is hardly ever in trouble and Mom makes a big deal about how good he is. Makes me jealous!

Well, I can tell you why she wanted him to out after he peed on the floor! He pooped on the floor! Dad is the one who cleaned that up and then Dad chased him out the back door. Mom asked Eddie why he would do such a thing and why he couldn't behave like Cujo and Toni Louise. Wow, I feel like I just won an award!

I forgot to mention that we have a cat. He was already here when I came to live here. Oscar told me that there used to be two cats here before I came. One of the cats came from Minnesota with him when they moved here. His name was Gemlin and he was sort of a snob. He thought he was better than the rest of us because he had a pedigree.

Gremlin was a blue Himalayan. Oscar said he was more gray than blue and could argue for hours about his fur color and heritage. He rarely got down on the floor with the dogs. He was too busy looking down his nose at them. He made constant fun of Wall-E because nobody knew what kind of dog he was. Gremlin claims that he had a birth certificate and that he came from champion blood lines. Oscar says that Gremlin was very impressed with himself. Gremlin stayed inside and could often be found lounging on Mom's bed.

Gremlin was old, the same age as Sarge, the Collie. Another cat was living here on the camp ground when they all came to live here.  She was a non-descript gray cat. She lived outside and refused to come inside. She wasn't very friendly at first, but she had never met the likes of my mom. Oscar says it didn't take long for the cat known as Spooky to learn to be held and petted by people.

Spooky and Gremlin did not like each other much. My mom sort of forced them to meet. Spooky was suspicious of this coddled cat that lived indoors and used a litter box. Gremlin started down his nose at her. Well, if a cat with a smashed nose can do that. Makes me wonder if he ever consulted a mirror. Maybe he would not have been such a snob if he had ever seen himself.

My mom was very worried about Spooky the first winter they were here. Spooky would not come inside and Mom was afraid she would freeze to death. She finally took an old covered litter box and lined it with a wool blanket and put it on the front porch with the cat food and water. Spooky took the hint and took up residence in her makeshift home.

But, as it turned out, Spooky wasn't the only one living in the old litter box. One night Mom went out to fill the food dish and add fresh water when the other resident came out to eat. It was a possum! Mom named him Petey. If you are an animal and you decide to live here, you will get a name. 

Petey was not pleased to see Mom and hissed at her. He probably thought he would scare her away. I guess he had never met anyone like my mom before. She hissed back at him and he started to charge at her. She swatted him with her broom. After that he stayed in his new home and would only watch her as he waited for food. Apparently Spooky was sharing her residence with him.

Spooky lived a long life before she went down for a nap one day and never woke up. It was sad, but she was loved and lived a good life. She is buried here on the grounds, along with other pets that have passed here. No one knows what became of Petey, the possum. Later I will share how Martha, the boy cat came to live here.