I’m ready for my close up!
It’s been a loooooong week preparing for today’s inventory at Mecca, but my weekend has finally arrived, and with it another exciting Frisbee Wednesday Photo Prompt… sponsored as always by the serendipitous Marilyn. Besides the tedious work of preparing a torn up hellhole so that it can be counted by a group of disgruntled people who probably make even less per hour than one of our own starting employees, perhaps another reason this week seems to have gone by so slow is because I couldn’t wait to post about what happened at work Saturday night….
No, I didn’t have to get the pad wall ready for inventory… though that would have been just as exciting.
During the summer I take my breaks with a couple other co-workers out on the lawn & garden patio (a nice advantage to working at a non-24 hour Mecca), and what should we see sitting as cute as could be on a support beam of one of the bins but a BABY POSSUM! And OMG, there was another one hiding behind a stack of patio tables in the same bin! One co-worker tried to take a picture with his phone, but since there isn’t much light outside at midnight, he got nothing but a blurry mess. I decided I was going to make a quick trip home as soon as I clocked out for lunch two hours later to grab my camera and hope there was still a photo opportunity to be had…
I only ran two red lights to make sure I got back as quickly as possible. At 2AM on Sunday morning, nobody even noticed.
When I made it back to Mecca, the patio was unfortunately quiet and deserted. I grabbed my lunch and staked out the area. It took only five minutes for one of the l’il ones to zip in front of the gate at the end of the aisle where we sit, but he was gone before I could get my camera ready. No sooner had I sat back in the chair after cussing that lost opportunity when Mama Possum came strolling in from the outside lot through a gap in the gate…
Time for the Mecca Possum photoshoot!
Mama emerges from behind these patio tables.
Who are you? The Paparazzi?
It is easy to see where possums get their reputation for being not the most prettiest of creatures.
Here’s my stunning profile for you… it’s my best side.
Mama Possum is not amused.
Well, isn’t Mama Possum just darling? If she doesn’t make you squeal though, perhaps her little kidlet will….
I haz a bewbie!
Can I have a possumback ride? Huh Mommy? Please?
Wheeeeeeee!!!!!
Oh look Mommy!!!! We’re gonna be famous!!! Hi everybody!!!
Junior! I told you not to talk to strangers! Remember what happened to your Uncle Buster?
OK, we’re blowing this joint before we end up in the deli’s rotisserie. Say goodbye to this loser…
Neither Mama nor baby possums have made an appearance since that night… which is a good thing since wildlife is not encouraged on the Mecca patio. But I was way too incredibly excited for this very first up close and personal opportunity to meet a real, live possum and its offspring…. not to mention getting to nab a few photos of them. I’ve never even gotten a picture of a baby squirrel before, but I can now say I’ve seen and photographed a baby possum. Awwwww, thanks Mama for bringing the kids by for my entertainment…
I think I’m getting the evil possum eye.
I don’t think I can possibly top possum photography, but I’ll certainly try next Wednesday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I hope they all have a fabulous possum life… the tail looks like Easy’s … maybe they are related?
btw: how big are that possums? like a cat or bigger? I never saw one for real ..
They are bigger than a cat… maybe even bigger than my Ody, who is large for a cat. They’re maybe a tad bigger than a toy dog. And that’s Mama, obviously, not the baby who was about the size of a month old kitten…
BARKS! They are so cute. OMD! Bacon is going to hate that he missed this one. You see I’m kind of like a possum. I like to climb on Bacon’s back so he can bring me around the house. Okay maybe he doesn’t like that so much but its a riot for me. BARKS! ❤ Houdini
P.S. I'm filling in for brother Bacon while he is away at Summer Camp this week. He didn't tell me how hard keeping his blog going was – WOW!
You like to take the pig for a piggyback ride? Ha!!!
If you need any extra material, try barking at Rocky the Squirrel. He probably thinks he can slack off while Bacon’s not around…
ooohh! Sweet. I didn’t think about him in the backyard. Gotta go run and find him now. He’ll be fun to piggyback off. Thanks for the suggestion my friend – barks! ❤ Houdini
There’s not much nastier than a possum, you know that! And still you persist…..
I still scrolled through, because you insist that one actually read a post before commenting. I was not interested and not impressed…..until I got to the BAYBEE!!1111 You really know how to get this kitten cam viewer to toss you a like on a possum post don’t you?
You would have died had you seen him sitting on the beam all totally cute and everything. I’d have boxed him up and sent him to you…
I will win the possum hating world over one mini marsupial at a time…
That was so special! And she and baby waited for you to go get your camera. That’s a well-mannered possum fambly. I’m really impressed. I am. Really. Impressed. I thought they were rather charming, in a marsupial sort of way. My last encounter with a possum was on my front porch in Boston when one had decided it was THE place to sunbathe and would not allow us to pass our threshold. They have a surprisingly large number of teeth, those little cuties. Sharp, pointy teeth.
I do love the mama with baby on her back. That get at least a triple AWWWW from me. I don’t give out triple AWWWWWs to just any old cute photograph of small furry animals!
I admit to being a bit worried I’d get hissed at, or even worse attacked, especially with it being a protective mother… but both mama and baby remained quite calm as I continuously flashed a bright light in their eyes. The baby coming out to join mother was the absolute icing on the cake. I’m glad they gave me that one photo where they were both looking right at the camera… that instantly became one of my best pictures ever!
That photo of both mom and baby looking at the camera is precious! And what cooperative photo subjects they were. We used to have possums in the yard all the time but they didn’t stick around for photos. And they didn’t bring their babies either. How freaking adorable that baby is!
It i hard to believe those cute little things grow up to look like…. well, possums!
That’s an amazing story. And your photos are wonderful. I’ve never seen a possum that close-up in real life. And the little possum-let is adorable. Oh my!
It might be my only encounter with one outside of my car. Two potential suicide victims were my lone experience with live possums prior to taking these pics…
It’s totally cool that you got all the pics, but isn’t that some sort of health code violation? 😉
I guess if they got inside the building it would. We’ve never had trouble with infiltrating possums, but we had a cat get inside once that managed to elude capture for several months… it obviously knew all of the trap tricks. Then there are the birds who would fly in the front doors during the winter… I swear, there were times last year when we seemed like a combination retail store/bird sanctuary. Every night sounded like you were in the middle of Wild Kingdom…
OMG OMG OMG. I am overwhelmed with TOXIC CUTE. Wow. What a treat. Thank you for sharing.
And the captions had my daughter (who was also overcome with toxic cute) laughing.
You can see why I was so excited now!!! You just don’t get to see baby possums every day!!!
OH MY GOOOOOOODDDDDD! The cute is killing me!
That momma was beautiful, but the baby….oh that baby was ADORABLE
I never knew little possums could be so cute!
Well baby mammals in general are cute. But the sass from that particular little possum just took it over the top
Am I really the first to make a “I call the big one Bitey” comment????
Apparently all of my readers have watched as many Simpsons episodes as I have. Looking the line up, though, I’m now surprised I hadn’t come across it before….
Awww!!! Of course you know by now i already love possums but those were sooooo sweet.
The captions were priceless! We are all warm and fuzzy now over here! ❤
I was quite warm and fuzzy as well! Seeing them almost makes me want to stop squishing Buster………. almost. 🙂
When I lived in Texas we always had a possum family in our back yard. The dog was not amused. 😉
Dogs never seem to be amused by other critters… but they keep dogs plenty occupied!
very sweet, I am a wildlife carer here in Oz and have a hand reared boy ready to go as soon as the winter here is over.
Awwww! Your possums are so much cuter than our American ones… but I still wanted so badly to try and pet my new friends. Of course, even with how calm they were acting with me just a couple feet away, I wasn’t stupid enough to dare try it….
Lovely photos, but I still can’t use the word “cute” for possums 🙂
Mama is going to give you a mean, ugly look for saying her baby isn’t cute!
You have proved once again that even ugly creatures that hang out at Mecca can somehow have cute kids, Bill. Great shots! That momma sure is a homely critter, but the baby possum doesn’t make my scream in horror. 🙂
Poor possums…. they have ugly hard wired in their DNA. They must have a real hard life between toddler and adulthood…
AWWWWW! POSSUM FRIENDS! I hope they skedaddled as fast as they showed up…
I believe they did. I’m a little disappointed that the second baby wasn’t with them when I took the photos… I do hope Mama found it before they skedaddled!
I was thinking the same thing re: the baby!