There's one in our North York backyard

by Lou
(North York (Toronto), Ontario, Canada)

The time is 7:30 pm, Thursday, March 20, 2014.

The light is beginning to fade fast. As I'm looking out into the backyard from the kitchen window, I spot an animal sluggishly walking along from west to east, along the top of the low, 4' chain link fence that separates our yard from our neighbours, Natalie and Peter.

I knew it wasn't a cat. It occurred to me that it might be an Opossum, though I'd never seen one before anywhere, let alone here in the city.

I called out to Norrey to come and have a look. By then the animal had gone in behind a set of compost bins we had constructed out of scrap wooden pallets near the back fence. After a few moments, the animal emerged from behind the bins and slowly made its way behind a stack of firewood nearby. From its waddle, Norrey thought it might be a badger. We waited for some minutes to see if it would emerge on the other side of the wood pile.

After a while, we saw more movement at the edge of the wood pile where it had gone in behind. I quickly put on boots and a coat and went out to see if I could get a closer look. I got within about 10' of it and could see it huddled just in behind the pile.

After a minute or two, Norrey joined me there as we both stood looking at it and it looking at us. It seemed pretty certain from this close range that it was indeed an Opossum after all.

Where it came from and where it lives are unknown at this point, though I worry that our pile of wood together with the compost bins and bales of straw back there could be an attractive place for an opossum to settle in.

I would have liked to take and include a photograph with report, but by now the light had diminished and it was too dark to get a decent picture.

Well,that's pretty much it for now. Bye.

Thank you for sending this to us, if you do by chance, manage to get a picture of the Opossum, you can send it to us and I'll add it to this page