We were nearly equal in size and it would be a good match if it came to that. His fur, standing out against the sky, dark in the low light, was all akimbo and I could see burrs and nettles all through it. "Ho, there, friend!" I hailed the slow beast and arched my back a little, growling quietly. Although he was not my friend in the true sense of the word, I thought it best to use a word that would not set him off. I didn't often see any opossums around here so I was surprised, at first, to come across one now when there was generally nothing more than a frightened mouse to chase up. There were many opossums in this area, thought, and lots of stories about their mischievous deeds done under the cover of darkness, but it was just not common to see one in the flesh. Something was bound to happen. Opossums generally kept to themselves which, as a cat, I could understand. He was the first to speak.
"Leave me be, pusssss," he hissed, speaking slowly but deliberately, his voice oddly cold and deep, but a good match in the cold air. I stayed where I was, watching him intently, my whiskers twittering a little. I could feel my fur beginning to rise. "Let me passsss," he demanded, starting now to plod slowly toward me, sure-footed on the icy wood. The fence started rocking slowly back and forth.
"This is my garden, friend and you'd better leave off unless you'd like me to assist you by knocking you off this fence." All pretense about my friendly intentions was discarded. I took a slow step forward, carefully placing my paw on the icy fence, and he stopped his advance, sniffing the air about him. I had to express myself clearly and directly to a beast of this sort, who would be a hard case. There was no beating around the bush. I had to defend my domain or it might become a haven for more unruly animals of this sort. Worse yet, the opossum would continue to return here. I said again, "leave off, friend, or, I repeat, I will knock you down as I warned."
"I would likesssss to sssssee that," he growled calmly. "I jusssss wantsssss to looksssssee. Mine doesssss harm nothing." He stopped sniffing and looked at me with his little black eyes. I could see steam rising from his fur and it looked like his body was smoking in the darkness. "Trusssss me." He started up again, walking slowly toward me, taking a step and then stopping to glance behind him. He moved forward.
"I would rather trust a dog, friend. If you've been poking your nose into my master's garbage cans, well, then, you've had your fun. Be off! There's nothing more here for the likes of you. I don't want any trouble." My hair was standing on end and I crouched lower as he closed the slow distance between us. "Isn't it too cold for you to be wandering around at this time?"
"There'sssss nothing here? I sssssmellsssss it," he said, stopping and lifting his pointed nose to sniff the air around him, again. "Mine babiesssss," he spoke while he clawed slowly forward, "isssss hungry." I could smell him now, the scent of earth and foxtails, the warm smell of its stinking breath puffing out of his pink nose in little bursts of air.
"Well, turn around and try the other direction unhindered by the likes of me." I was ready to pounce. "I warn you for the last time." He stopped abruptly, now close enough to strike if I should need to defend myself. I thought I would if he took another step. My feet were getting cold, standing in one place for so long.
"Thisssss isssss the way, pusssss." His unblinking eyes, which seemed to match the dark color of the sky, stared into me. He was determined and we forced our eyes on one another. "I knowsssss you don likesssss it, but I musssss passsss."
"You are mistaken, friend, if you think you will get by." My back claws were digging into the wood and my body was rocking back and forth, slightly. "You will not pass without a fight, although I would rather avoid such a conflict as both of us would surely regret the encounter. You would not be the first to be persuaded in such a manner." I was making a low sound, a kind of growl, and ready for any sudden movement from the opossum who seemed to be considering his response.
"I doesssss what I wantsssss to. You don frightensssss me, pusssss," he said, baring his sharp teeth, which glistened in the starlight like tiny icicles, wet with saliva. "Why don't you go ssssscare up sssssome mousssssesssss." With those words he began to walk forward again and something inside me took over. Everything seemed to move very slowly after that.

I didn't hesitate and, hissing loudly, reached out with my right paw, claws extended, and struck him across the snout. I had braced for the maneuver and was holding onto the fence tightly with my other three sets of claws. I wasn't going anywhere. His head snapped quickly to the side and then returned with a sharp glare and a snort of his own, somewhat shaken, but still in the same place. He was hissing now. The blow had drawn blood and I could see the warm, black liquid in the darkness coming up from the side of his jaw. The blow didn't seem to phase him and he, retaining a grip on the fence to match my own, was nearly on top of me now, striking out, extending his own set of claws. Faster than the opossum, I was ready with another blow of my own to deliver and our claws struck one another on opposing shoulders. He fell to the ground in my master's yard almost instantly and I, trying to retain my balance after the blow he had delivered, soon followed him down, leaving a few of my nails in the fence and scratching at the air. For a moment, everything was silent in the icy evening and I was part of the sky, drifting with the stars, with Leo. I seemed to fall in slow motion, my body righting itself during the plunge, as if controlled by another force. I didn't know what I was doing and then the Earth was below me.

I touched down rather awkwardly, but amazingly on all fours, as cats are fabled to do, and promptly sneezed. I felt as if another one of my lives had passed away. Somewhat dazed, I had landed safely enough, though smarting a bit from the opossum's hit, which had drawn blood of its own from my left shoulder. Where was I? When I regained my wits, I located the opossum in an instant, it was right next to me, and realized that my enemy was not moving. He lay completely still on a bed of crushed dried grasses and, in truth, looked as if he had met his fate in the collision with the cold earth. I stepped quickly back a few paces.

I looked around the yard quickly and then back at the opossum who was lying on his back, legs outstretched, gazing into the heavens as if he had died making his final greedy prayer to the constellations. Still no signs of life. I had warned him. Nothing stirred in the yard and I stood still and listened. My breathing was beginning to slow down and I sat back on my haunches in the small patch of dirt to clean my forepaws. My shoulder was throbbing where his claws had wounded me, and it was a little difficult to raise my left leg, but I didn't feel much pain out in the cold. I could feel the blood oozing out among the hairs and congealing. I wanted to get inside.

After some moments spent tidying up myself, I decided I had better investigate my friend a little more closely before returning inside to get some rest. The fight had taken a lot out of me, but I wasn't completely lacking in energy. I stood up and took a few steps closer. He looked weak and useless, a dirty mass of gray hair and blood on the dirt in front of me. "I'm sorry, friend, but I warned you. There were easier paths to take." I leaned my head down and sniffed his belly and pulled my head back quickly. I looked at the underside of his chin, his mouth slightly open. "You can express your regrets to the heavens now as the inhabitants of that lofty place are the only ones who can hear your wisdom, now." I lunged forward with both of my forepaws. His tail seemed to twitch in the darkness and I batted at it a few times until I was convinced that it was just my imagination. Silence all around me. No sense in staying out here in the cold any longer, I thought. "My master will dispose of you in the morning," I said, in parting, and turned to head back into the house. "Tomorrow, my master will know what happened when he sees my injury and finds you in his garden."

As I looked away, I heard the opossum scrabble to his feet and then, before I understood what was happening, felt him sink its teeth into the base of my tail. He held on fiercely. The pain was excruciating and I kicked my back legs with all the force I could muster. I could hear the opossum rolling away behind me as I ran as fast as possible to the garage, dragging my flaccid tail behind me, which was now no more than a dead weight attached to the back of my body. He hadn't bitten it off completely, but there would be, perhaps, no way to recover it. I could tell. A fine long tail it had been, too. I made it to the garage without further incident, arduously pulling my tail through the cat door where it had gotten caught, nearly finishing the opossum's work, and collapsed on a blanket near the door to the house. The opossum had nearly chewed my tail clean through and I was experiencing a pain I had never felt before. I put my head down and did my best to get some rest. I knew the opossum wouldn't enter the garage and felt safe, at least.

I couldn't sleep because of the pain, but after, perhaps, twenty minutes, I heard a noise outside the garage. Something was having its way with the garbage cans, shuffling around and making a general clatter. After some time, the pain had lulled me into a kind of daze and I was barely conscious, but I heard another noise outside. The slow stupid voice of the opossum.

"Pusssss?" I could neither move nor respond. I was weak and his words came to me as if in a dream. "Pusssss?" His voice again, louder than before, but still at a safe distance on the other side of the cat door. "I knowsssss you are inssssside there, pusssss. I sssssmellsssss you." Then the sound of snorting and gurgling. "You knowsssss better now, pusssss, you do. I mussss passss and I doesssss. Mine babiesssss isssss hungry." The sound of scratching against the bottom of the little door. I could see the flap opening and closing. "Now who'sssss get dissssspossssse, pusssss? Mine massssser is minessssself and you knowsssss me now, pusssss, you doesssss. I likesssss new friendsssss, pusssss." More scratching. "Maybe we meetsssss again, pusssss." With that, I heard him pad slowly off, and then all was black.

Frightening dream, really. Perhaps something which portends an untimely end to my carefree existence. I wouldn't say there was no truth in dreams, and you might call this one a nightmare, but I would be foolish to believe all of the dreams that passed through me during my nights of sleep. This one, though, left an indelible impression on me, perhaps because of the nature of the opossum's words; the way in which he spoke, which was otherworld.y. As I said, I had never met an opossum so I didn't know if there was any truth in the words or not. I didn't even know if that was how an opossum sounded. I only had stories to go on.
- posted by Bob @ 4:18 AM 0 comments