Thank you all for your kind words about my little possum friend in yesterday's post.  I want to update you about him/her this morning.

Hubby and I went out back about an hour or so after I wrote that post.  He refreshed the water bowls for the wildlife while I spread out the food for the day.  Then he started digging the grave hole while I put on disposable gloves & prepared my little friend for burial.  I took an old, clean, soft bedsheet and nestled him/her in it after an examination of the body.  There was not one single mark or sign of trauma anywhere.  His/her coat was absolutely beautiful, mouth was closed & no sign of spital or foam coming out, eyes were closed & dry, his/her little hands & feet were preciously perfect too, as was his/her weight.

At first I thought perhaps s/he had some fatal disease like distemper, rabies, cancer, something.  But his/her body & appearance simply wouldn't have been in such good shape if s/he were sick for quite some time.  There are no trees above the area that s/he could have fallen out of either & if that did happen, I would expect to see some bleeding from the mouth.

Normally, when I know for certain that a wildlife animal died of natural causes, I place them in a shallow box & hubby walks it out into the woods about half a block or so.  Then, the wildlife who are carnivores will be nourished by the body of my deceased friend.  That's how God designed things.  But if I have no idea how a wildlife animal died, I don't want to take the chance of something being spread to other animals who might eat it.  That's when the deceased animal gets buried.

When the hole was deep enough, hubby gently took the well wrapped body of my friend & placed it in the cool, quiet spot.  He covered the hole back up with dirt & placed two rocks on top.  I clipped a rose from my rose bush & placed it in the soil.  I chose a spot next to the foundation of my side of the house, near where my possum friend laid down to pass.

Did s/he simply die of old age?  I don't think so as his/her coat & body looked too nice to have weathered years of outside life.  Did s/he have some sort of internal defect while developing in his/her mother's womb that finally took its toll?  I just don't know.  But for whatever reason, s/he passed away and came into my yard, close to my house, to do so.  If close to my house & me is where s/he preferred to be, then close to my house & me is where s/he will remain.

I wanted to update all of you.  Thank you once again for your comforting words left on yesterday's blog post.  Have a great day.

Much love always, Andrea xoxo