230207 The Smell

I remembered this story today.

I had been aware that something was dead near my garage for a week now. That’s not terribly unusual when you live out in the country as I did. I would get a whiff of something dead as I got into my car in the morning, but as I was always nearly late for work, I had no time to look around. There were creatures out there that fed on road kill and disposed of them in a natural and earth-friendly way.

That morning I was in the garage getting trash ready for disposal when I was reminded that something was dead nearby. Still no time for that, I was busy with the trash. I was about to leave when I noticed a half-liter Pepsi container on the ground by one of my trash containers. As I picked it up, I did the one thing you should never do when you smell a foul odor. I took a big whiff to help me locate the source. I located the source. It was a possum. Key word ‘was’ a possum.

A while ago, I had noticed the trash cans had been jostled but all I could see wrong was the one that was empty and had its lid on upside down, was now uncovered and the lid was on the ground. Cats, I thought, but no harm done. I was wrong. A possum had apparently been heading for the full can when he stepped on the empty one with the loose lid. He fell through and flipped the lid out on the ground. And being a possum, he was very still in the bottom of the empty can whenever I walked by on my way to work. So still was he that he died there! At least a cat would have made a noise.

I had to walk out into the air and take several deep breaths. First to get that stench out of my nostrils then to hyperventilate so I could grab the can and race out somewhere far enough away that I would no longer smell that possum. I flipped the possum out on the flat where the before mentioned creatures could get to him and dispose of the poor thing. Then I just laid the trash can nearby so it could air out.

Now in all honesty, when you start a day hauling trash and finding a dead and very rank possum that you just have to dispose of immediately; well you just know the rest of your day is just going to get better and better.

At sunset that night, the can was still out there. But the possum had been dragged away, likely to be consumed by another possum.