Ronda Rich

Syndicated Columnist

Of all the animals on the Rondarosa, perhaps the most unusual is a possum I raised from a baby. His name is Pokey.

Tink was out of town that summer, shooting a television series. This is important to know because he would NEVER have allowed a baby possum to be treated with love and live in our garage.

It started like this: I noticed that our beagle (also a rescue I’d found in a drain pipe and brought home before an ice storm; Tink was in Los Angeles that time), kept sniffing around boxes in the garage, eager to find something. I went to investigate and found a baby possum.

Here’s some possum education: Firstly, possums do not carry rabies. Secondly, possums, officially known as opossums, are useful. They can withstand 100 rattlesnake bites. That means if a rattlesnake meets a possum, the possum wins. I’d rather have a possum around than a rattlesnake.

They eat mosquitos, so this keeps the horses and donkeys happy as well as us when we’re sitting on the back porch during the summer.

Possums are nocturnal, so if you ever see one in the daytime, he’s injured. Please, help.

My friend, Stevie Waltrip, feels the same way about animals as I do. Once, she saw an injured possum on the roadside. She stopped and got him, then put him in the floorboard of a new Honda she was driving from Darrell Waltrip Honda. When she got home, she said, “Darrell, I need you to help me with an injured animal.”

Darrell, who had no idea what was in the car, went out and opened the passenger door. According to his side of the story, he jumped back several feet and squeaked out, “What!!!!!”

Possums ain’t pretty. We can all agree on that. If you find an injured possum, pick him up by the tail. Possums’ bodies are so heavy that they can’t swing back at you. That’s how I picked up the baby possum after I’d put the dog in the house. I took him out into the woods and set him free.

“Bye, little baby,” I said. But Pokey didn’t want to be free. Every day, I found him in the garage. Finally, I gave in. I put him in a box, high enough that the dogs couldn’t get him. Daily, I went out to feed him. I petted him and reassured him that he would always have a home on the Rondarosa. Pokey grew to love me and accept my affection. He still enjoys my petting.

This all worked well until Tink returned. “We are NOT having a possum live here.”

“Too late,” I replied. “He has already listed this as his home address on all his official papers.”

As Pokey grew older, he decided he liked living in the woods during the day but coming home at night to eat the cat food. The cats think he’s one of them and accept him, sweetly.

But the dogs? They’re out to get Pokey.

One night, after I let them out before bedtime, I heard fierce barking. Dogs have a people bark and a different bark for animals. I grabbed my phone for a flashlight and found they had circled Pokey when he was leaving the garage. Our beagle is the scout and our dachshund is the sniper. Dew Drop had gotten a bite at Pokey’s side and now, Pokey was playing possum.

I called Tink, “Bring the peroxide and the purple medicine.”

I doctored Pokey while Tink stood 10 feet away, going “Yuck! Yuck!” then “I’ve got to go wash my hands.” (Of course, Tink hadn’t even’t touched Pokey!) But, before he left, he took a photo of me and the dead-looking possum which he then posted on social media.

Guess what happened? Hundreds of comments in favor of the possum flooded our social media. Not one person was on Tink’s side.

It’s lovely to know there’s so many possum lovers out there.

Ronda Rich is the best-selling author “St. Simons Island: A Stella Bankwell Mystery.” Visit www. rondarich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter.