Ophelia the Opossum

Happy Holidays, All.

Things have been busy here. Many visitations, many blessings. I’ll be sharing them over the next few days. I hope your holidays have been as blest as ours.

And now…

Behold Ophelia the Opossum, a juvenile female that’s been coming regularly to clear the table – or ground – when the raccoons and fox are finished.

Sometimes Ophelia is preceded or succeeded by Opie and Opette, also Opossums and a mated pair, and never with. Last year Opette looked odd, malformed, and it wasn’t until we looked closely that we realized she was carrying pups in her pouch, one of whom may have been Ophelia.

You’ll note that Ophelia chows down and with a good relish. She comes almost nightly. The video above was taken on the Eve of Christmas Eve (23 Dec). Susan (wife/partner/Princess) and I planned to travel to an Inn for an elegant dinner and the weather became tricky, traveling became iffy. We stayed home and I made (of all things) Chicken-Garlic Nachos, some good finger food for watching old murder mysteries.

We’d cleaned most of the nachos down and there was a small handle left. “Shall I put these outside for the kids?” (We call all our Old Ones “The Kids”).

“Sure.”

So I took what was left and put them out with the peanuts and other high protein and fat foods we leave out for our winter guests.

You’ll note that Ophelia enjoys a good nacho or two.

I learned from Ophelia that all Opossums’ names start with the letter “O” in translation. It’s a tribute – I’d offer an homage but it would more correctly be an opossage – human’s have a silent “O” starting their name (they’re quite proud of being Opossums) so they’ve all chosen names with a good resounding “O” at the beginning. This is also why you’ll always note the capitalization when they meet and/or greet you; “We are Opossums. Not opossums,” they’ll tell you. “Remember that.”

Opossums are also feisty creatures. I was learning the local dialect of the OriOrinda language, the Opossums’ native tongue, and discovered that their own name for themselves, translated into Human and then English, roughly means “Beware my piercing teeth, Two-legs!”.

I asked if this was always the translation or was it more due to the past few thousand years of Opossum-human interaction.

Ophelia looked up at me and said, “Beware my piercing teeth, Two-legs.”

Point(y teeth) taken.