Red Level Mystery

[Marcella]

Well as some of you may have read, we live in the south and have tons of wild critters running amok. Earlier this year a racoon ate all the goldfish out of our pond and began eating with the 8 cats. Carl got that sucker finally. Well this is another story. Like I said we have 8 cats and kittens plus 6 dogs. The cats and kittens stay out on the front porch and we are always walking over them. One day we came home and 7 of them were gone. We looked for days and finally gave up on them-thinking someone came and got them. Now that is a mystery because the 4 Toy Manchester Terriers in the back yard are worth money, not the cats. But for 3 weeks we only had one cat and the big ole white possum that started coming up to eat the tomatos on the front porch. That possum isn't scared of a thing. He will stare you down and continue to eat. He also began eating the cat food. Believe me, its not my idea of a good pet. So earlier this week we had been to a meeting and we came home and found 5 of our cats that had been missing back on the porch after being gone 3 weeks. Shocked but glad to have them home we gave them food and love. Missing still was the siamese kitten and the solid black kitten. Of course ole possum still hanging about. 2 days later the other 2 kittens came home and we now have all our 8 cats back. Where or what they were doing is beyond us. We have had cats for years and never did a whole herd of them wander off like that. Well we were getting ready to go to bed a couple days ago and the dogs went out and ran right pass ole white possum who was on the porch with all the cats. I told my daughter that ole whitey was outside and she said we needed to call him Cracker. I asked her why and she said because only white crackers and rednecks kept possums as pets. If she was closer I would have popped her one. But anyway, ole possum was on the porch again tonight, eating with the cats. Guess we are rednecks- We started calling him Cracker.

[Papaw]

Marcie,

Many many moons ago,, I think I was about 25,, just bought my first home with a VA loan.. Had the house built in a nice quiet neighborhood.

Things were about normal for the first year or so, then I came home from work one day, and found an ugly old Guinea hen wandering around the back of the house.
I had a bag of corn kernels (lord knows why) that I fed her.. I stopped at the local ag store, and bought a bag of cracked corn.. and fed her that, put out a bowl of water..

well, long story made longer,, this dang bird would fly up on the roof, and sit there waiting for me when I would come home from work, to feed it,, then it would swoop down and follow me around til I did.. LOL Ugliest dang bird Id ever seen,, I didnt even know what it was at first, and had to call Mother to find out if she had an idea of it.

well,, she hung around for a few months,, eating a bag of cracked corn a week.. lol,,, even into the winter, she hung around,, I put a box out for her to sleep in.. Dont know where she ever came from, but guess she felt right about landing there in my yard.

that christmas, some neighborhood kid got him a new pellet gun for Christmas,, yep,, never seen that ugly old bird come spring.. Daughter said the rumor mill was the kid shot it... couple other neighbors were missing cats too, come spring.

Cracker.. lol,, Now that is a good name for the possum,, I liked Ol' Whitey too..
Have a great weekend, you and Carl.

Papaw