The possum has been THE hot topic of conversation in this house since Saturday evening. He's been around before - last summer Annie watched him at two in the morning while he hung out on one of the cement posts on our front porch. We heard her crying. When we checked, there he was like some silvery-grey ghost of a monster rat hanging out and sunning himself except he was basking in moonlight instead.
Both my brother, Artie and I have had raccoon experiences. I once saw one walking nonchalantly down the block on the opposite side of the street from our house. Thankfully, I was inside looking out the front window at the time. It was around 7AM on a Saturday morning. We were waiting for a home attendant who, at the time, was helping our Mom post ambulatory surgery. The attendant saw it as well but didn't know what it was - I did.
Many years later, Artie and Annie were out for a Saturday night stroll. (Why do these things always happen on a Saturday? Anyway...) This time it was about 10:30 at night so the stroll was confined to our block. All of a sudden, what appeared to be a big cat emerged from under a car about 10 feet in front of Artie and Annie. For once, Annie was so fascinated she was mute. To say Artie was stunned would be an understatement he was in shock. The raccoon stopped for a second, looked very calmly at them both then proceeded across the sidewalk through an open chain-link fence into the backyards for our stand of houses.
At first my brother thought it was a cat until he got a good look at it's long slender snout and the raised back legs. By the time he saw the tail, there was no doubt in his mind what it was.
They were outside a total of 5 minutes when my house phone rang. I picked it up and it was my brother. "Why are you calling me, you just went out?"
"We can't walk Annie at this time anymore. We just saw a raccoon. He went through the chain-link fence near the corner."
"Great. We can't let her on the porch without checking it first from now on either."
Who ever thought you'd have to worry about wildlife in Brooklyn?
Buddy's doing his best to walk and he is having moments when the walking is back to normal. Unfortunately, those moments are interspersed with his legs giving out or just not working right. Our morning routine went well. When we were done, I placed Buddy down to do his business. After a few minutes I realized he didn't come back to the kitchen as he usually does so I went looking for him. He was on my bed - a definite plus since he hasn't gotten onto the bed under his own power since his leg troubles started.
After awhile I heard a noise so I went to investigate. Buddy went back to do his toileting. Another surprise since he got off the bed under his own power instead of calling me. I decided to check. To my chagrin, he spent quite a bit of time toileting but when he was done there was only a silver dollar sized puddle of wet - way less than the amount of fluids he took in. I guess his kidneys are slowly shutting down.
Annie on the other hand, has been on a major campaign for attention. After I finished with Buddy, we went through her daily routine. I've been doing my best to pay extra attention to her. Today, she trotted up to me with a plush toy in her mouth and a hopeful look begging me to play. Usually, she likes to be chased while she holds the toy but I managed to coax her into a game of fetch. That made her happy. She's been very finicky which I'm sure is also a bid for additional attention so I added some (gasp!) Chinese Roast Pork from our weekend takeout to her breakfast to get her to eat it completely. It worked and she seems to be relaxed and content. I keep telling her that Buddy is sick and pretty soon he will be gone. I know she doesn't really understand and I feel like a total loony doing this but I hope at least my tone of voice will convey something to Annie.
Well, that's it for my Monday post - it's the start of the week and I need to get some people chores done and out of the way for a change.
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