Last week, we were hanging out with the New Neighbors when B1 pointed at our front yard and said “There goes your possum!” We informed them of the recent demise of the last possum, and that this was an all new possum. But yes, it was “our” possum, as evidenced by the fact it trundled across our yard and disappeared into the front flower bed … where we found a possum-sized hole leading under the house.

Tonight, while Lin was fast forwarding through commercials and the house grew quiet, we heard an odd noise. It took a moment, but I determined it was coming from outside, and it sounded very much like glass rattling on concrete. Oh, say, a glass bowl with cat food in it being moved around on a concrete slab porch. Yeah, that kind of sound. I’d just told Lin earlier that when Sasha didn’t finish her breakfast, huge flocks of cow birds and crows descended onto the porch and battled for bits of the cat food, and that I suspected when she didn’t finish her dinner, “our” possum was cleaning her bowl for her. It was pure speculation on my part, since there are other street cats in our neighborhood, and possums aren’t the only other critters out there.

I opened the front door a crack and peeked in the direction of Sasha’s food bowl, and my suspicions were proven to be fact.

Meet the new possum.