Jan 20 2009
To shoot or not to shoot, that is the question!
I am not the brightest woman in the world, but I do know a few things. Although, my husband has questioned me on numerous occasions, and hardly ever listens to me. There are times though, I do know my stuff.
One evening while returning home, we encountered a possum on the side of the road, almost in front of our house. We lived in the country and you see these types of things all the time. I am from Kansas City, big city girl, but I do know a thing or two about possums. My husband being the soft hearted man that he is, stops the car and gets out to further inspect the poor animal. Upon returning to the car, he advised me, it seemed to be hurt and would have to be put out of it’s misery. At this point, I start laughing so hard I thought I’d puke. This was my first mistake, the first of many, I might add.
My husband stared straight at me and with clenched teeth, asked what was sooo funny. I said, ” let’s go look at it again,” so we do. Without laughing again, I gently took his hand and said, “aww honey, don’t you know?” This is what they do. He hatefully said, “what is it they do?” I then advised, “play dead, they do that so you will leave them alone.” It is at this moment, the conversation went sour. He then advised me I didn’t know what I was talking about and he was going to put it out of it’s misery.
Second mistake. I began to laugh again, to the point that I had tears streaming down my face. He then gets into the car and pulls into the driveway, slams the car door and informs me he is getting the gun. As he storms up to the house, I follow. Before I can reach the front porch, he has returned with a 357 pistol. While trying to reason with him, he is heading towards this poor animal. As I give it one last shot, I told my husband we should just go inside and give it a few minutes, really, it will scamper away and all will be well. I also advised there was no blood anywhere and told him the dogs must have scared it, but it is what they do, it’s their defense mode. Dear old hubby wasn’t paying a bit of attention to me and proceeds to walk towards the animal, head hanging down (he really does have a caring heart for animals) as it grieves him to see anything in pain. He just looks at me and says,”it is in pain and you don’t care.” I try to give him a serious look, then bust out laughing, “it will be when you get through with it.” That seemed to be his breaking point. He then told me to go inside, he didn’t need my sarcasm. I told him, “please, just come inside and wait 10 minutes, I promise, when you come outside, it will be gone.” I took his hand and said, “if he’s not gone in 10 minutes, you can come outside and shoot it, okay?” He nods his head and starts for the house. I lean over the possum and said, “you better run like hell if you want to live.” I look towards my husband and he is looking back and tells me, “very funny”. We go inside and wait, we then go back outside and, what do you know, it’s gone.”here possum, possum, here boy,” I call. Of course, I start laughing at my husband all over again, this time while lying on the ground. The look of him with that big ole 357 and the thought of the hole it would have made. He didn’t think it was funny at all, he was really mad and
started to march right back to the house. Still laughing, I said, “I told you, city boy. As I looked up to see him gesture to me and it wasn’t one of love. “Hey, I called, when you wave at me use all your fingers.”
