It May Be a Great Name for a Lake (and a Rock Song), But My House Will Not Become a "Possum Kingdom"

Last night, there was a mystery afoot at Casa de Kev...

Yesterday morning, when I went into the kitchen, I noticed that a couple of kitchen towels were on the floor, and the little scrubber brush that usually sits above the sink was in the sink; a few of the plastic cups on my counter had also been knocked over. I wondered if we'd had a very small earthquake overnight; i didn't think anything could have run into the house, because I'm too far back from the street and on an elevation.

Those things were a minor annoyance at worst, but I was even more annoyed that the vent duct on my dryer (which I was about to use) was disconnected from the wall, and it took me quite a while to reattach it. But once I got that done, all was well and I left for teaching.

Upon my arrival at home last night, there was no further sign of mayhem in my kitchen, save for one thing: The carafe portion of my coffeemaker, which was drying separately on the counter when I left, was sitting in the middle of the floor! It was unbroken, mind you, but on the floor...and I doubt that it got there on its own power.

So my next-door neighbor and I came to the conclusion that it had to be a critter in the house--maybe a squirrel or large rat, something strong enough to knock the coffee carafe off the counter. And to tie yesterday morning's two events together, it had likely gotten in through the dryer vent...which was, at that moment, preventing its exit.

But a fairly thorough search of the house turned up no sign of a critter, nor had I seen the usual things that accompany such a thing (things chewed up, droppings, etc.). My plan was to leave some things randomly placed on the kitchen counter to see if there was a repeat performance, and I wasn't sure how well I would sleep...

But wait--there's more! The critter was spotted. I found it behind my washer, and appeared to be either a ginormous rat or a possum (the nose made it look like the latter). It was closed up in my laundry room as I threw out suggestions to my friends who were up late on Facebook, and the consensus was to call animal control, who we (correctly) assumed answered their phones 24/7 and dealt with after-hours emergencies.

And just like that, the "siege" was over. The Animal Control guy came in, ducked behind the washer, and carried the possum out of the house by the tail with his gloved hand. I could finally sleep in peace!

(And later today, I'll make sure that the outside of my dryer vent--which opens up into the neighbor's yard--is properly covered.)

More Animal Stories

My old radio feature from college lives on, because animals are involved in the goofiest situations...

• An aquarium in Japan that's home to a collection of exotic fish is using an electric eel to power the lights on a Christmas tree.


• A woman in South Dakota nearly ended up sharing her hot tub with a mountain lion.


• Meanwhile, in Vermont, a horse survived a plunge into an icy swimming pool, but only after a number of rescue attempts.


• And along the same lines, a bull had to be rescued from a well recently in China.


• According to legend, Davy Crockett killed a bear (or perhaps that's "kilt a b'ar") when he was three years old. And now, a distant relative of Crockett has done so at the age of five.


• And finally, check out the amazing escape-artist trout who have found a way to swim away from their farm.

Taking the low road, part 1: A man drove his car onto an icy Minnesota lake yesterday afternoon; the car sank to the bottom of the lake, and its driver is in jail on DWI charges. (Key quote: "The driver has 30 days to get the car out of the lake..." And while that seems like an excessively long time to leave the car in there, it will be hard to do if he's still in jail.)

Taking the low road, part 2: A student driver in Houston passed his drivers' test and subsequently drove his car into the DPS building.

Taking no road at all until someone helps you: From the "SUX2BU" department, we have the UPS truck I saw getting towed down the freeway service road tonight. Imagine all the holiday deliveries that were interrupted by that...

More Animal Stories

As many of you know, I had a feature on my radio show in college called Animal Stories. These will never run out, because animals are always doing the craziest things....

• A New York town was visited by fifteen wild turkeys on Thanksgiving Day last week (and none of them ended up on someone's dinner table, either).


• A Missouri family finally got its dog back after it was missing for seven months. In the process, the dog had two temporary homes, was renamed once, and got neutered along the way (by a veterinarian who provided one of the places to stay).


• This one's just wrong: A man in Wisconsin who was upset with his wife for not buying him some beer took out his frustrations by shooting one of the family's pet goats. (He's being charged with a variety of things.)


• The new panda cub at the San Diego Zoo has been given a name; it happened 100 days after Zhen Zhen was born, to keep with Chinese tradition.


• Aficionados in London are trying to get Queen Elizabeth II to declare pigeon-racing to be a legitimate sport.


• And finally, I once won a radio award with a spot for our traffic service that used examples of actual weird accidents reported over our airwaves. One of the weirdest ones was "Animal fat fills the streets of downtown Ft. Worth!" And now, a waste truck in Virginia has leaked poultry fat over 20 miles of roadway.

Tomorrow: Some cool music that I've discovered this week.

More Animal Stories

Once again, my old radio-show feature in print form:

• From a town with the cool name of Cannonball, North Dakota comes the story of the moose that thinks it's a cow, mixing in with the herd and refusing to leave.


• In a similar vein, a Virginia man brought home a stray kitten, and golden retriever started nursing it and otherwise playing Mom to the little feline.


• In Pennsylvania, a dog that got lost last month walked the 7 miles back home over three days.


• When a Pittsburgh-area veterinary clinic caught fire, the vet had to finish spaying a dog out in the middle of the street


• And finally, a dog in Maine helped save its owner during a recent house fire, which was started by the cat.

Back to regular posts tomorrow.