Rhonda Kale on sat 5 mar 05
Kelly-
I laughed when I read your post- I used to do animal rehab and baby possums are so ugly they're cute. My last batch I had two males and five females. I nicknamed the group Buford, Bubba, and the Five Possumettes. I have a resident possum who is a descendant of one of the babies we nickname Lulu who comes with jillions of babies on her back to eat the catfood and then crawl back under my studio. Some might not like having critters under there but one of the things that possums must do before they can be turned loose from rehab is catch and kill a mouse (yes, like a cat). They will take care of the rodent problem around your studio and yard shed. They do however like to poop in their water and do have a slight B. O. problem. The males also tend to be more laid back-they have no responsiblity except making more possums. Oh yeah-for male possums, their plumbing is backwards and for all possums, their "hands" are on their feet and their feet are on their hands. A little possum trivia
for the day.....
After all the due discussion on potter's wheels I wrote a whopping check to Axners for a Model 600 electric wheel (which is supposed to have the new two part new and improved heavy duty splash pan-I WILL let ya'll know how it is-I get it next week),a
Creative Industries ST1 potter's stool, and leg extensions. I am taking my big manual kickwheel and putting it on the side of the yardshed that is toward the peanut field. Soooooo, my hubby and I were cleaning up and moving all the flowerpots to move the big wheel onto the side of the yard shed. We were down to two stacks of pots and one was a big pot and the little small stack. I reached over and grabbed the side of the pot (about a 12" pot!) and pushed it over-and then just about wet my pants!!!!! There under that pot was a coiled up 3 1/2 foot, big around as the top of my arm and head as big as the inside of my palm COTTONMOUTH!!!! When hubby poked him with rake, he showed us his lovely inside of his mouth( and YES-you could see his fangs!) and then sat there coiled up. Being rather cool this afternoon, he was sluggish and not really awake. He also had a white covering on his eyes which suggests he was about to start his shedding process. That was the FATTEST snake I have EVER s
een! They are heavy bodied anyway but evidently when the field rats and mice coming in from the field for winter never were seen, I guess he was eating them!
Hubby put him in a cat litter bucket with snap on lid (he had large pole with hook like the snake people use-except he used them for Model rocket retrieval from trees) took him down to Quail Creek, and put him out near a clump of heavy brush. He had done us a favor by eating our mousies and ratses and we did him a favor by putting him back in a wild place to do his thing..
Oh yeah, I DO know what a Raccoon os is-my mom had a matching pair of raccoon os earrings. Always caused a lot of discussion.....after she passed, I never found them...probably just as well but they are very interesting looking......
So watch where you put your hands under pots..it's that time of year again...the critters are back!
Rhonda Kale
31.23595 N, 85.40529 W
Potters Council Member
qndivauniv@earthlink.net
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