CODY'S FIRST POSSUM

Living here in the Southern Blue Ridge mountains, it was only a matter of time until Cody,(51/2) month old Border Collie,crossed trails with a possum.Possums are very common here as is evidenced by the daily fresh road kill on our byways. Possums have been around for millions of years,real survivors, but still haven't mastered the art of crossing a road. Chickens could probably give them lessons.

Anyhow, Cody was loping through the small field in front of the house. He has 3 speeds, laying down, loping, and full out fast. He never walks. He is happily playing with and old plastic flower bucket and has eyes only for it.
The possum was crossing his path at 90 degrees and determind to get where his was going. They are always going somewhere.

Here comes Cody, engrossed in his bucket when he literally ran over said possum. Several things happened. Possum snarled and hissed, and acted vicious.Cody, who was in the middle of tossing the bucket in the air,so he could chase it, tried to jump sideways, and instead, fell right on top of the hapless animal.Loud barks and growls and snarls ensued at once.

The pot is forgotten, Cody is suddenly on full alert, ready to defend his home and his master. Round and round he went barking and snarling in his best act as a terible creature, and he would show this possum a thing or two.

Cody did not have a clue as to what this thing was, but he did know that
any forign varmint on his turf, needed to be herded.

Possum had not moved. He merely sulled up and growled.They are not dangerous, but will bite and have a mouthful of sharp teeth. Next move was
up to Cody.

He complied. Jumping in and grabbing the creature by his long rodent tail, Cody pulled backwards.   

Picture this. Black and white 35 pound puppy, kneeling nose down,rump in the air, tail flailing, trying to drag the possum backwards. Where? I don't know and I'm sure he didn't either.Possum is digging and clawing the ground, trying to escape. It looks like a scene from a roadrunner cartoon.

About this time, Cody spots me sitting on the front steps and lets go of the possum's tail so he can bark and wiggle and otherwise tell me about this thing he has caught. Old possum immediately plays dead. Old possum trick. He curls up into a tight ball and looks really dead. Cody now did not have a tail to latch onto. He looks at me for guidance which is not forthcoming.
So he cirles this creature, barking fiercly, growling his best growl, being a real menace to the possum.

I called for him to come and he did. He did't want to leave his possum, but he knows to come. He dashed on down to me and commenced to tell me about his great deeds. In dog language, he is a hero. In possum language he is a loudmouth jerk.

While he is reporting to me, old possum climbs one of the big Silver Maple trees in front of my house. Cody saw this move and dashed off, but not before giving me that, "Now look what you caused", look.

Now as I said, possums are not the brightest bulbs on the tree.This one is no different. He climbed the tree, but only to the first limb,about 10 feet up. Cody spies him, makes one jump to the top of a pile of locust fence posts, next jump he had a mouthful of possum. Lucky for the creature,Cody only had aholt of some soft fur.He fell back to the ground spitting out hair.The bedraggled possum climbed further up the tree.

Cody tried to climb the tree but failed, so he did his best coon dog imitation. He had a possum treed and he would tell the world. Normally he seldom barks, now however, he sat and gave us his best "Treed" bark. This could go on all night. He couldn't see the animal now but he new he was in this tree. More treed barking.

My good wife came to the door and fussed about all the commotion and noise. I said, "Cody's treed a possum". She said "I don't care if he has treed a bear,quiet him down".

Well it was after dark now and the old possum needed a break. So I put Cody on a leash and took him to supper,(drug him to supper is a more accurate term). Cody don't give up easy.

Next morning, the old possum was gone. Cody has guarded the tree all morning, convinced that his quarry is still there. He'll learn. Jeep