Saltillo Flora and Fauna

The weather has been pleasantly mild the past few days. My psychotic hawthorne bush is blooming. There's a huge wisteria in my front yard that has embraced a very old oak tree. Wisteria is a climbing vine that has purple-ish blooms in the spring. This one is so big my front yard looks lavender for a few days as it starts shedding.

Occasionally, a possum visits, stays a few nights, does his possum things and then disappears for a while. There's a large "woods" just to the north of me that is probably home or at least his point of origin. Seems he's plotting some type of possum takeover. He is of the genus opossumus germanicus austriabodicus. His name is Arnold.

The first time Arnold showed up, he kicked the neighbor's dog's ass, another neighbor's dog disappeared, the feral cats that prowled the ground amongst the trees became arboreal, and a herd of possums was seen trying to turn over a small car just two streets over. Arnold always flexes his muscles when cars pass by and it looks like he has a tattoo on one arm that says 'Mom'.

A friend ran into the house one evening saying she had just seen a gray pony climbing a tree in the front yard. Astonishment shone on her face. Somehow my telling her it was "just Arnold" didn't inspire any relief. Later that evening when she left I looked out the window and noticed her running to the car. She's finally answering the phone.

The other night I caught Arnold sitting in a chair on the veranda beside the grill with a pair of tongs in his lap. At first I wasn't going to bother him, but the snoring was terrible. In my best George Thorogood fashion, out the door I went. My appearance startled him and as he ran to the wisteria vine to climb the tree I think I heard him say, "ahii'll be back."

I'm worried. How did he start that fire? What was he planning to cook?

"Look alive. Here comes a buzzard."
-Pogo (aka Walt Kelly)