THIS Is Why My To-Do List Is So Freakin' Long

All afternoon, Cuckoo has been pretending to be an opossum named Kitty Cat.

I wish I could say it's a product of his vivid imagination.

Oh how I wish.

Sunday, COW had a look-see in the attic.  With all of the bat activity this winter, we wanted to make sure there wasn't a colony of them living in our attic.  No bats.  He did, though, find a nest.  A nest which is two feet high.  And then he asked the kids if they wanted to see it.

All six kids took a turn getting a tour of our attic.  Admittedly, it is an interesting place.  One can see the original roof, as part of the house was added on in the 30s.  There are the old chimneys from fireplaces no longer in the house.  The walls in the house are very wide in order to accommodate permanent ladders to allow easy access to wiring and other such homeowner things.

I saw no need for him to show them the nest, but he did it anyway.

Since no one really talked about it, I gladly assumed it was forgotten.

Until we came home from school on Monday to find a dead opossum in the walkway up to our house.

Once the kids took a wiiiiiiide walk around it, through the deep snow and then-falling slush, the dogs ran around back.  They know the routine.  Kids come home, animals get fed.  The dogs forgot all about that dead opossum.

Except the opossum wasn't dead.  It was just playin' them for fools.

Once the coast was clear, he made his very slow move.

Right up to our front door.

That's the last photo I could take.

The closer it got, the more worried Cuckoo became.

By the time that opossum's nose was touching our storm door, Cuckoo was shoving Giant out of the way in order to get the front door closed.

And that's when the questioning began.

Can they climb?

Can they fly?

What do they eat?

Can you just go pick it up and move it?

Why will it bite you?

Why did it come out before spring got here?

Can it get in the house?

How do you know it can't climb on our roof?

On and on and on and on.

Because he's afraid the opossum is the thing that built the nest, and it will get into the attic, climb down to his bedroom, and eat him in he sleep.

Other things which kept me from getting anything done yesterday...

Ironically, on the kids' snow make-up day, we got another ice/slush/snow storm, which prompted the principals to call an early dismissal day.  Have you ever seen slush fall from the sky?  It's very weird to have slush fall on your head.

We have a chicken (or several chickens) eating eggs.  Buttercup caught one in the act two days ago.  That means I'm outside collecting eggs every hour or so, having to beat the girls to the punch.

Aaaand, it seems our roof, which we put in 7 years ago and has a 50 year warranty, is leaking.  The ceiling in our dining room has an ever-expanding yellow spot, and yesterday a bit of water was dripping through the wood in the door jam.  We're assuming it's an ice dam on the roof getting under the shingles.  Nothing to be done about it until spring, though, as no one can climb on the roof with all of the snow and ice on it.

Anyway, back to the opossum...

Cuckoo made a good one.  He crawled around at a very slow pace, pretending-but-still-using-teeth to bite people, and trying to climb random furniture, which wasn't annoying at all.  Especially when it was time to head upstairs for bed.

The real opossum stayed curled up on our front porch for quite a while.  We finally stopped watching it and went to play a game.  Cuckoo checked on it after about 15 minutes, but it was gone.  We have no idea if the dogs caught it again or if it made it back to its tunnel in the snow or if it climbed up into our attic.

We have no idea what made the gigantic nest.  I'll be calling an exterminator to have that taken care of.  At least HE won't have to wait until spring to get something done around here.

Have a lovely day!