No Vacancy #SOLC22

 Last night, my husband warned me, "Did you see all of those holes in the grass?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, don't forget to close the garage when you leave in the morning.  We don't want another visitor because this time it will be a skunk."

He was alluding to the garage guest we had about one month ago.

***

I was sitting in my writing room on Zoom during Time to Write when I heard Crash! Bang! Bang! Bang! from below.  I left the room, thinking Scott was making a mess in the garage; however, I found him in the kitchen oblivious to the commotion. 

I proceeded to the garage and opened the door to find the recycling bin turned over, cups and seltzer water on the floor, and paper strewn everywhere.  

"Scott, something is in the garage!"  I yelled and quickly ran back inside.  

Begrudgingly, he set off to investigate while I went back to the safety of my writing.

A few minutes later, I heard Bang!  Tap! Tap! Tap!  And then, my phone dinged with a text message and a picture.

We had a guest, a possum, who must have thought we had a vacancy since both of our kids are at college.  He would not budge even though Scott was trying to nudge/scare it with a broom handle.  Instead of moving from his perch, he grabbed onto it with its forelimbs and teeth.  

Scott eventually gave up.  The next day he went out to the garage but could not find him.  He searched and banged around the garage trying to find him to no avail.  The possum had disappeared, but we knew he was still inside.  Scott left the garage open, hoping he would leave.  

I refused to enter the garage for days.  I would get to our third car by leaving through the front door.  

Scott convinced me he was gone because he had supposedly searched everywhere, so I started to drive my own car, which was parked in the garage, but I got into it quickly and never lingered.  I swear I could feel its presence, that it was watching me from above.

The nights were quiet.  We did not see anything knocked over, on the ground, or out of place.  We both thought he had to have left when the door was left open.

Approximately one week after the possum's arrival, Scott went into the garage to put the garbage out for pick-up.  He grabbed the garbage pail and looked inside and found our guest curled up with some discarded peanut candies all around him.  The possum did not move; he was playing dead.  

Scott grabbed a recycling bin to put over the top, dragged it out to the driveway, and turned the bucket over.  Meanwhile, I closed the garage door from inside the house, so he could not get back inside, and watched from the window.  It was dark and cold out.  The possum did not come out right away.

Eventually, I saw him waddle out and skitter to the top of the driveway and cross the street.  He was gone!  I saw it with my own eyes!  

Needless to say, we have made it very clear that we have no vacancy and do not want any guests to take up the extra space we have now that the kids are gone.  The doors have been closed tightly...for the most part anyway.