It has been a very long time since all of you little children have been able to come to our church. Hope you are all enjoying your vacation, although you can't go very far from home. Are you all attending the Holy Qurbono online on Sundays and reading the Bible and praying daily as well? No break from that!
While you have all been away, a possum gave birth to a litter of at least 3 babies. Can you guess where the mama possum found a home?
Well, it was our janitor, Marco, who first spotted it. Vibi Uncle had tasked him to clean our storage shed last Sunday. He opened the door and was beginning to move out the stuff stored there when he noticed something move. He was scared and shut the door. Vibi Uncle took a peek and thought it was a dog. It didn't bark though and so he was not sure. Then Achen took a look and he was sure it was a possum. And, of course, Achen was right!
Have you kids ever seen a possum? I had seen one before in my backyard a long while back. But, this was the first time I had seen one this close. It can look ferocious but it does not hurt you unless you attack it. They are properly called 'Opossum', but we often shorten the name to 'possum'. Possums are 'nocturnal' animals - which means they are typically active only at night. They can't see or hear very well, during day or night. So they rely on their sense of smell to hunt for prey. They eat snails, slugs, insects and sometimes even small rodents. So, it is not too bad to have a possum around.
But, we had to clear the family out of our storage. I tried prodding the mama possum out with a long stick. It bared its teeth and made a grunting noise, but didn't budge. Vibi Uncle called animal control. But they would not come to remove a possum, since it is a harmless animal. They asked us to shoo it away with a broom. But then that is what we had tried - gently of course, since we didn't know whether it would attack us. So we gave up.
Last Thursday, Juppey Uncle went to the church and with a stick hauled out the litter. Don't they look cute? The mama possum tried to stay put, but Juppey Uncle prodded it out. It slowly walked away to hide under the trash bin. After Juppey Uncle left, the mama possum must have come back to get her litter. This Sunday they had all cleared out of the storage and were gone, or at least that is what we would like to think!
Our church is now quiet again, waiting for our little ones to come back and fill its hall with joy, laughter, and of course, the screaming and crying ... nah, none of you do that, do you?
I hope I got you interested in learning more about opossums. You can read more at https://opossumsocietyus.org/general-opossum-information/. Enjoy your summer holiday!
Rishin
