Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. (Albert Einstein)
Every living thing is important — has a role to play — matters. (Paraphrase, Jane Goodall)
It’s getting colder, with more freezing temperatures at night, and it’s my fervent hope that this means tick season is over. Here along the mountain and creek, we’ve been blessed with our fair share of the little blood-sucking rascals. Although I must admit that this summer we have had fewer problems with them than we have ever had, perhaps due to a new flock of guineas, all but one of whom have unfortunately fallen victim to foxes and/or hawks.
OR, as I have recently learned, maybe our scarcity of ticks this summer has been due to our ever-present opossums — they actually limit the spread of Lyme disease by eating ticks. Who knew they could be such valuable critters?? Up until now, I’d known them primarily for their quirky “playing dead” when alarmed, the way they tote their young about (in pouches, like kangaroos), and their proclivity for cat food.
You’re probably all familiar with “possums,” but in case you aren’t here’s a great description from the writings of famed explorer Captain John Smith in 1608: An opossum hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat. Under her belly she hath a bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young. (From Appalachian Magazine, 2017)
So the next time I look out the window at night, and see one contentedly munching on cat food, I won’t be so quick to shoo her away. Bon appetit, my friend! Go have some dessert of tick-on-the-hoof.