Maizy and the Possum
written March 2004

As we were headed out the door to go down to the local pizza place to pick up some free pizzas we had coupons for, we were walking down the sidewalk and lo and behold Maizy (our beloved 13 year old dog) had a possum laying right beside our walk. Of course as we were coming out the door, she ran over to greet us coming out the door with her proud "look what I caught" look. I looked and saw the possum move and as it did she turned and did a quick snatch and shook it. At that point the possum resumed playing dead, so she dropped it and looked to us for praise.

Well after appropriately praising her, we went on out the gate, got in the car, and went down to the pizza place assuming she would have it killed when we got back (this wasn't the first time she had ever brought us a "gift"). When we returned the possum was in a different location in the yard. We went over and noticed it was still alive. It didn't look wounded, so we called Maizy away and got her lured into the house using pizza thus giving the possum a chance to escape. It raised up, looked around, and started across the yard. Well the possum headed under the deck and under a truck cover we have stored there. That wasn't the smartest place for it since Maizy often sleeps there, so after going in the house and depositing the pizza I went out the back door to help Charlie get it out.

Finally we got it scared back out the front of the cover and it headed back around the front of the house. When I went toward the gate to try and get it out, it scooted around to the OTHER side of the house.That possum went on down to the storage building and I thought it was trying to go under the fence but no....it has decided to squeeze through the chain link fence. Now I am sure you all have seen the size of a full grown possum (well most of you all) and the size of a hole on a chain link fence. Ain't no way you would think...

This possum got halfway through and got stuck...I am not kidding you. Couldn't go forward, wouldn't go back...so after a few minutes of trying to convince it to back up, (even going so far as to grab its tail and pull it backwards) Charlie came in the house and got some channel locks to try and bend the fence wire.

Every time we would try and get hold of the wire to bend it, well it just didn't seem to work. The possum kept trying and trying to go through the hole. It would turn around and hiss at us if we got too close but that obviously was because it was afraid. Finally it got in a position where we could the problem was that it was carrying babies....thats why its pouch wouldn't fit through the hole in the fence (still haven't figured out how the rest did)

So I went around to the other side of the fence in our neighbors yard so I could try and help from the front side. Let me tell you a hissing possum ain't a pretty thing. Meanwhile she decides to deposit a little unwelcome gift which of course Kenny, who had been standing by the entire time watching the whole thing, thought was hilarious. Then after considerable manueverings, Charlie finally was able to get hold of the tail of one of the babies (they had come out of the pouch) and after pulling it loose from its momma dropped it across the fence onto her head. Then he was able to get hold of another and did the same thing. While this was all going on I got the crust from the piece of pizza Kenny was eating and dropped it a few inches in front of momma. This seemed to cause momma to strain a little more to try and get to the crust of pizza. Finally after getting two more loose and dropping across the fence and some more repeated nudgings on the butt she was able to finish squeezing on through the fence and on her way.

Of course now the problem is one of the babies is still on the other side of the fence, we don't have any idea where the momma went and there's not a darn thing we can do about it...cept hope that momma comes back for it.

Dec 2004- As a follow up to this, our beloved Maizy died sometime during the early morning hours of Dec 23, 2004. She loved the snow more than anything and it had snowed enough to cover the ground the day before. We found her on the front porch, where she would often lay to sleep at night, on the morning of Dec 23rd.
As each dog often finds a special place through special gifts in our hearts, so Maizy had found ours by her intelligence of learning to open screen doors to let herself in or out, climbing the fence, or speaking in such tones to tell us what she wanted that it sounded as though she were actually talking. When she wanted out and the main doors were shut she would go to the door and it sounded as though she would say "Out". It was the same for food, play, walk or any of a number of things. She was sure a big blessing in our lives and kept us on our toes.