We had the dogs out very late last night. It was waaay after midnight when they started barking like there was a booger. Not the usual bark like there was a booger in the street, but like there was a booger in their back yard sanctuary. This is not normal and was alarming, so I took the flashlight out and checked it out. They had cornered a possum between the air conditioner unit and the wall of the house, and they weren't sure what to do about it. This was a BIG possum, one of the largest I've seen, and it was, of course, playing possum. That is, it wouldn't move even though they were pouncing at it and even nipping at it with their teeth.

I did the obligatory homeowner thing; I put the dogs in their crates and went back out for a closer look. And, I poked it with a stick. Allie came out and just had to see it when I told her what was going on. I was under the upstairs porch, where the water hose is, washing the mud off my shoes under the light when she crept to the corner of the house with the flashlight. It was one of those rare moments that only comes about once a decade in a marriage, so I waited, and just as she peered around the corner, leaning forward with the light shining on the possum, I sprayed her. Yipe! Perfection. Thus, my responsibilities fulfilled, I came inside. The possum was gone this morning. But I have the memory of her jumping and calling me names to last forever.

};-)