It is the eve of garbage day. My trash truck is down at the end of the road waiting for pickup.
My life has been exciting.
I bought parsnips and prepared them. They were good. My family said they were good. They just weren't something anyone was desiring to eat again. In my mind I was loudly thinking, fried potatoes are not the only vegetable we can eat. Actually I only fry potatoes about once every two or three months. I love fried potatoes, and I have to limit myself which I don't like to do. I plan to plant parsnips in my garden. We all need a bit of variety in our diet.
Tonight, my dog Louise just disappeared in the dark. She is a black dog. I have an area I dump scraps of food and vegetable scraps. I had dumped some boiled peanuts, sour grapes, an expired banana, long ago cooked collards, incredibly ancient carrots along with the usual coffee grounds, potato peels, egg shells and the like in the field in front of my house. I was puzzled that my spoiled dog would plunder these remains. I do have two dogs that frequently sample the lazy chick's compost scatter. One is a dachshund, the other is my older brother's elderly rottweiler mix. Neither dog goes hungry but it is the found food is so delicious dog mentality at work.
My neighbour is paranoid that someone or a dog is going to mess with his horses. They have called the law on me for sundry offenses such as I have pulled fence posts from the ground. Luckily, law enforcement doubted my ability to do so. Even if I could, I would not waste what is left with my body and back on spite. Idiots.
They were out there patrolling their property with their golf cart and bright lights. I have woken up in the middle of the night because they are patrolling their property line. Oh dang, where is Louise. I crank my car and drive a wee bit in the driveway. That dog will do anything for a car ride. Still no Louise, so I go into the house and decide to look in my bedroom. She is in there on my bed with a dead opossum.
I take the sheet off my bed with the opossum wrapped up thinking I need to dump it away from my property. I put the sheet with opossum in the car seat next to me to take near the river landing area. That is about a mile from my house. As I exit my driveway, I realize that opossum is not dead. It is passed out. So I pull over as fast as I can and empty that sheet quickly on the side of the road.
I came close to getting to know too personally a opossum in my car at 11 PM at night.
Of course I could have butchered the opossum. I understand people used to eat roasted possum with sweet potatoes. I plan to bake sweet potatoes tomorrow. I have a feeling if I did that; no one would ever roll their eyes at me about trying something new like parsnips.
Meanwhile, Louise is unhappy. I took her prize. She looks at me with the knowledge that I just ruined everything for her. The other dogs walk around anxious like, we are thinking about having a PArtY toNiGhT. We think we know someone who has a opossum. It's going to be grand.
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| Young Opossum by Liam Wolfe (Wikimedia Commons) |
WHAT a day. I am so glad that the possum didn't wake up during its car ride. Excitement like that you could well do without.
ReplyDeleteThe realization that the opossum was alive was a moment of terror. It rolled on the ground like a log. But it was gone the next day. I was gentle dumping it.
DeleteI found when they "play possum" they are really convincing. Callie scared one into the death pose. Thinking it was a goner, I picked it up by its tail to throw it over the fence and its tail started to wrap around my wrist. Yikes. Now I wait till they are stiff to move them:)
ReplyDeleteDogs can introduce you to some things. I remember a opossum charging my toy poodle. The Golden Retriever woofed it and it fell dead in the road. My dogs have introduced me to many possums. My favorite was an armadillo plastered to the ground.
DeleteThat’s hysterical Ann. I’m not surprised it was still alive. I really think they’re cute. So glad you found Louise. I was getting a little concerned.
ReplyDeleteWow on your neighbors. They need to get a Donkey.
I checked where I dropped the opossum off. It was gone. They are cute and I certainly have created a opossum/armadilla buffet. I wonder what it thought when it woke up.
DeleteI have a feeling someone is hassling my neighbors. It just isn't me. I think they are OK. I just want to live in peace and they can keep their drama on their own property. lol
And what did Louise think she was going to do with the opossum, I wonder? Play with it? Chase it round the house? Eat it? I'm glad it was still alive and you could release it back into the wild.
ReplyDeleteLOL Well, that was quite the week. I'm glad you were able to release it.
ReplyDeleteMy dog would never be able to eat scraps of food. He's a small Chihuahua/Jack Russell Terrier mix and has a very sensitive stomach. if I give him people food he gets sick. If I change his dog food, he gets sick. If he gets too many treats, he gets sick. Can you see a common theme here. The vet said to give him the same dog food and limit treats and no human foods except scrambled eggs since he can eat that. This dog is spoiled.
:-)
ReplyDeleteThey are too cute to roast.
Oh my gosh! Such a week you had - and expressed so amusingly ;-) I wouldn't eat that cute little animal. I wouldn't eat a baby dove either, but we sure did try to save one around this time last year. The dove was but an egg in a small nest when my husband realized he'd nearly "trimmed" away vine that held the nest so snuggly. We anxiously watched for days for the mama dove to come back and sit on the nest again. We were beyond relieved when at last she returned. But then we happened to catch a snake slithering up the vines toward the nest...even our two labs got excited when hubs leaped up and grabbed the snake with his bare hands. I about passed out. I hoped the baby would hatch and fly the heck away - soon. One afternoon, we heard a peep. Yes! It wouldn't be long before our vigil would be over. Then the loudest of our two goof-dogs starts barking up a storm, letting us know a bobcat had come to inspect the nest. It took some bit of threatening to shoo the bobcat away, but we did. Next morning, after an early walk with the dogs, hubs sees the mama dove pecking around on the ground and realizes the nest is now empty. He searched the ground for the baby dove as he coaxed the dogs inside the gate, but the (loudest) dog had already spied it and gobbled it up quick as a hiccup. Hubs doesn't usually cuss that early in the morning so I knew something terrible must have happened. A new nest appeared last week. We're considering moving it somewhere else before an egg gets laid in it...
ReplyDeleteBe safe out there ;-)
How unfortunate that you have such nasty neighbors. That's awful.
ReplyDeleteWe had a possum in our garage when we lived in Illinois. We had to lure it into a box and bring it to a forest preserve. It started hissing and looking totally terrifying.
Quite a story, Ann! We have possums here too. They tend to run over roofs and every year during apple season, they take a bite out of my mother’s apples. She says she wouldn’t MIND so much if they just ate the whole apple. 😂
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful recap of real life -- possums and neighbors and bumps in the night! Reminds me of the time our elderly aunt visited us to say she put our cat's toy snake on top of the piano. I said, "What toy snake?" and spotted a lovely mysterious snake making its way across the living room floor. I grabbed that snake by its tail, rushed outside, and truly 'flang' it over the fence. Later, my neighbor reacted on hearing the story, "Gosh, I hope you didn't throw it into my yard." Well, I think I did. Didn't look like a rattler. But it sure wasn't a house pet!
ReplyDeleteHowever did I miss your posts??? Damn, you're a good writer, or at least an odd one. Same thing, actually. Thanks for you comment, I have Bennett's in my line, never sure of their stability, but I'm sure you're fine. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI like a parsnip! My father used to be a bit of parsnip into the Thanksgiving Day mashed potatoes for that extra bit of kick. So good.
ReplyDeleteOh gee... I'm sorry you have such a terrible neighbor. You know, I've never had parsnips. You've made me quite curious.
ReplyDelete