Echoes in a Hollow Space

7. And this is a weird one. Early this morning, about 12:30, I heard this great clattering noise coming from my bathroom, which is on the other side of my bedroom closet wall. I realized that some critter had gotten into the crawl space underneath my bathtub. Ever since the guy did the remodel, I’ve periodically heard critters in there banging up against the underside of the built-in bathtub. He apparently left some opening they get into. Rats or squirrels maybe. Something small. Usually, all I have to do is turn on the water or bang the tub and they scurry off in a hurry. Not so last night.

I could tell from the particular type of hissing and barking coming from my tub’s underbelly that the critter lodged in there this time was a ‘possum. Much larger than a rat or squirrel and apparently stuck and in a panic. Those hisses and barks are usually reserved for panic, when confronted with a predator/enemy or otherwise trapped. I banged on the tub and ran the water and that only increased its panic. I heard it clanging hard against the pipes in the wall and at one point it was scratching hard against the underside of the tub, desperate to get out. I really felt sorry for the poor thing, but there wasn’t anything I could do. I also couldn’t sleep with that racket and contemplated calling the exterminators for (hopefully) a trap and release.

Finally, sometime between 1-1:30 I remembered that there was an access way to the house’s nether regions on the side of the house right under my bathroom window. I wondered if the plumber, when he inspected the pipe the previous day, had somehow locked this critter in. So I went out with my flashlight and pulled the screen and the covering board off and came back inside. ‘Possums aren’t the brightest bulbs in the animal kingdom so it took another hour for it to realize it had a way out, but about 2:30 I heard its barking slowly diminishing in volume along the side of the house. Peace and quiet reigned and I could finally get back to sleep. 5:45 a.m. came painfully early this morning.

I asked the plumber when he showed up this morning if he could take a look at those bathroom pipes because I had a horrible fear that critter might have damaged them. Everything worked okay this morning, but I wanted to be good and sure.

The ‘possum adventures continue…

8. “The good news is,” said the plumber this morning, “this pipe I’m fixing today is the last of the big pipes. You’ve replaced all the other ones and any problems you have from this point on should be a lot less expensive.” Mom and I did a rough tote of plumbing expenses we’ve incurred since my parents bought this house in 1987. Spread out over the years we estimate we’ve spent close to $30,000 for various plumbing adventures. I sure as s**t hope this is the last of the big pipes. This is the part of the American Dream of Home Ownership no one ever tells you about, children…

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Quote of the day:

"In the court of birds, the bug never wins his case."

—African proverb


And speaking of social injustice of the day: I spent the weekend getting deeply acquainted with Pink's song, "Dear Mr. President." God, I love that song. She lays it all bare with quiet passion.

ETA: Thanks to kmkibble75 for the Pink video.

In other news:

While I was over at iTunes, I also downloaded a few tunes from Sergio Mendes's new album, Timeless, in which he collaborates with Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas (and others). Who knew hip hop and bosanova could sound so good together? Check out "Mas Que Nada."

Other than that, I did a little cooking and some research reading this weekend. I made a marinated London broil with olive oil and soy sauce n' stuff, and my pasta vinaigrette and dang that was good, if I do say so.

And we discovered about a week ago that an adolescent possum (quite a bit smaller than the full grown variety) had taken up residence in the rafters of the garage. (Yeah, I know it's opossum, but for generations my peeps have been saying possum and I'd feel strange calling it otherwise.) (And I ain't going to use no hyphen in front, neither.)

Anyway, this little girl comes out at night and eats the Princess Underfoot rejected cat food we leave out for strays and slips into the garage early in the morning to sleep the day away. She gets in through a smallish hole. We decided we're okay with her sleeping in the rafters, especially since we discovered this weekend that she's got babies. Since we discovered that, we've been leaving fruit near her escape hole to supplement the cat food.

How do we know she's got babies? Possum babies, once they come out of the pouch, ride around on their mother's back until they can fend for themselves. They're so little and cute! The babies peak down from the rafters and their little heads are no bigger than a large walnut shell--and those big, dark eyes. Adorable.

Yeah, adorable. People get freaky about possums, but they're really shy and retiring creatures. They'd rather run away than fight. "But they're so ugly!" people say when we tell them we like possums. Right, so only pretty critters are allowed to live unmolested, I guess. Our vet likes possums, too. In fact, several years ago when a mother possum got killed in the neighborhood, the roommate and I gathered the babies up and took them to the vet. She hand-raised them until they were old enough to go to a nature center.

Adorableness:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/42346258/1528865956025665264YjhDcN

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Forestry/TBarnes/Web%20pages/MAMMALS/pages/baby%20possum.htm

http://www.kanachart.com/images/eatstuff/animals/babypossum.jpg