Organize More

I was greatly impressed by the order in nature this weekend. 

Pete and Penelope returned from their summer abroad.  Pete and Penelope are opossums that came to live under our back deck last winter.  All winter long, they slept under the deck only to pop out after 10:00 p.m. to collect the apples that were left for their dinner.  They disturbed nothing and no one.  Actually, they became our evening entertainment (pretty pathetic, I know).  We would turn off the kitchen light to cut down on glare and watch them as they made their way around the yard, led primarily by scent (opossums are almost completely blind), winding around in circles until happily finding their apples. 

Did you know that opossums are the only marsupials native to North America?  They have pouches, like kangaroos, in which to raise their babies.  When they came to live with us, I looked them up.  I’m now fascinated by marsupials… but, I digress.

When the Spring came, Pete and Penelope disappeared.  They could have died, or moved on.  I had no idea.  No note, no good-bye… just gone.  I worried for a while and kept leaving out apples.  Eventually, I accepted the fact that they were gone for good and I moved on with my life.

It is now October and the cool weather is beginning to blow through.  On Sunday night, Josh bounded up the stairs to tell me that Pete and Penelope were back.  He saw them mucking about in the yard and so he tossed out dinner apples.  I got to the back window just in time to see a tail disappear under the deck.

All of a sudden, I had a rush of happiness.  I was quite happy that Pete and Penelope had come home to winter with us.  I missed them.  I was also very very happy to know that there is some order in the world.

Nature has its own order.  Pete and Penelope returned.  The juncos will be back in the side yard as they are each winter.  We will continue to spend more on bird seed, apples and cat food then we do on people food.  It is a good feeling to know that our little house is shelter to so many.

Last night, after putting out Pete and Penelope’s dinner, we had new visitors.  A mama raccoon and her twins came by.  They weren’t so interested in apples, but made a fine meal of the peanuts left for Irving and the other neighborhood squirrels.  I suppose they will be around for the winter too.  I guess I should look up raccoons and see what they’d prefer for dinner tonight.

Yep, there is order in nature… even when the human world seems to be “going to hell in a hand basket”.