O Awesome!

Being in the middle of the nation's second most populous city, the opportunities to observe the natural world that were so plentiful once upon a time back home are minimal. Human nature here is wild and wooly enough to make up for the lack of actual wild animals mostly, but there still is an unfilled void. Happily it is filled by the grace of God. It's something like how a flower or a clump of grass can grow through the crack in a paved road. Life has boundless determination, and will find a way.

A particular life form showed to a friend and I its zeal to exist as I walked with her to her car parked out on the street near my apartment building. It so happened that we found ourselves walking through the parking garage rather than the lobby. It was this providence that put us in a position to witness the seldom seen opossum that dwells in our parking garage. Having seen it before, I was not entirely shocked by its appearance as was my companion, but it was a kind of a surprise.

It was motionless and unresponsive to our presence and words, and we stood there watching it for a bit. I had my fill in short order, but waited patiently. My friend was quite taken with it, and may be the first to perceive an opossum as being cute. I attribute this to her overwhelmingly friendly and positive nature, which I would not sat that I share. I fear that her favorable opinion of the creature may have been violently changed had I not been present to discourage her from getting any closer. When she bemoaned the absence of any food to feed the thing, I sought to assure her that it must surely have a plentiful supply of that which it likes to eat, but found this argument to be less than persuasive.

I then noted that she was still carrying her partially consumed bottle of water, and she enthusiastically set to conferring the remaining water upon the opossum. As no proper receptacle was on hand, she poured it onto the cinder blocks of which was composed the wall separating us from the neighboring building. The previously implacable creature instantly reacted with evident fear and panic, squirming away as quickly as the species would seem capable. My friend was mildly distraught, and I tried to ease her mind with the tale of a previous encounter with local wildlife, but succeeded only in casting myself in an unfavorable light.