The Uninvited Guest

     As we headed out to the hen house last Sunday I noticed “something” casing the perimeter of the fenced-in chicken run. It was gray and about the size of a small cat. We had just come from the barn where our two gray barn cats snoozed in a sunspot in one of the stalls, so I knew it couldn’t be one of them. “Pete, what is that?” I grabbed his coat sleeve as we slowed our pace and crept closer. Pink protruding nose, pink toes, hairy body, and a long tail…it was an opossum. In eleven years on our farm, we have never seen one.
     Every horse owner fears the presence of opossums for one reason and one reason only…EPM. Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis. It is a neurologic disease in which a parasite invades the central nervous system of the horse. So what does this have to do with funny faced little opossums? Opossums carry the eggs of those parasites in their feces. If a horse eats or drinks from an area where these have been dropped, they get sick. Lesions develop on their brains and spinal cords and they become atrophied and uncoordinated in their hindquarters, leaning and falling down. They lose the ability to know where their feet are. Many have to be put down. If caught early enough, costly drug treatment helps some horses, but not all. It is a frightening and debilitating disease.
     So…now you understand my reaction to the opossum on our property. We have five horses. That day, Pete chased after it in an attempt to scare it off. A few hours later from the comfort of our sunroom, I saw it inside our fenced-in back yard, casing the fenceline from the inside. This is our dog yard and a little too close for comfort. After finding nothing to eat, the opossum left the yard and we lost sight of it. Later that day, Pete saw it yet again by the chickens, scaling their fence like a rock climber. The chickens just stood there carrying on with their rooting and scratching, seeming oblivious to the drooling predator, with the exception of Stanley. A fierce protector of his hens, our red rooster strutted a circle around his girls, puffed up and ready for battle.
     I strive to show compassion to all beings, so eliminating Mr. Opossum was out of the question for me or for any hit man-for-hire. Instead, I simply asked the opossum to kindly leave, that there was no food here for him, and that if he did not leave, he would end up in a live trap and curried to another county via our truck. We haven’t seen him since. No tracks in the snow, no droppings, no pink snout, no opossum. It was that simple. Horses, chickens, and humans can all relax. All is well on the farm.

An opossum I found online