An Ode is a lyrical poem meant to be sung. Why would you do that for a opossum. It such an unattractive creature especially when it opens its mouth.
Coming from the south there have always been jokes, poetry, stories and even odes to opossums. There is even a country star, George Jones, that had a nick name of opossum. Maybe because he wrote a song about a opossum. And in checking there are numerous odes to opossums on the internet. Again I ask why?
According to research, opossums are marsupials from the order Didelphimorphia endemic to the Americas and the largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere. Shockingly there are over 103 species in 19 genre. Hmm, who’d a thunk?
What prompt my interest in this was one that had been run over in front of my house yesterday as I was heading to church. It reminded me of a conversation with a small child, not mine, but because this child had only seen opossum when hit on the road, he thought that was where they came from and what their purpose was. It was a chuckling conversation.
But the most chuckling remembrance concerning opossums was from Baby Ruth, my Opossum Queen.
Baby Ruth was a Black Lab cross that had a thing against opossums. She would go into attack mode the moment a opossum scent cross her nose. I wrote a story and submitted it for publication about her and this obsession and I will attach it here sometime if publication gets declined, its rather a funny story. As you know, opossum are notorious for playing dead in appearance and emitting the smell of death at the same time.
Baby Ruth would capture them, shake them violently, thinking they were dead and then she would prance around all proud like she had saved the world. Thirty minutes later the opossum would be gone but the crown on Baby Ruth would still be intact. All great memories.
When my nephew was young he found a baby one that had been abandoned or lost and raised it until it was able to fend for itself. They are quite cut as babies but then all babies are cute, especially animal babies, so many varieties. They even seem to smile.
In closing I remind my self as everyone else to be kind.
For the Love of 
One night, I let my dog Benji out to pee. He dashed across the front porch into the yard and began sniffing frantically. I stepped out onto the porch to wait for him. As soon as I stepped out, a movement on the porch caught my eye. It was an opossum. On the porch! I screamed, he hissed and ran off. The dog had run right past him and never noticed!
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