Passing Possum
Excerpt from my nature journal on March 28, 2017...
© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 35943988 - Virginia Opossum; Walton County, Georgia. March 28, 2017.
Tuesday, 3:48 PM - I wandered out behind the shelter to read the latest draft of my Okefenokee Journal aloud. Proof-reading orally tends to help the flow of my sentences and ideas. While pacing back and forth, a Virginia Opossum came up over a small pile of stone and brush within just a few feet of me. It looked in rough shape: a cataract in one eye, labored breathing, excess saliva on the front arm, mucous in the nose.
It was quickly apparent that it was struggling. As it slowly staggered down the small hill, it fell over a few times, revealing a single hairless baby clinging to her belly just outside the pouch. She tried to pull herself up a few times, but finally just laid down in the clover to rest. Rabies isn’t typical in Opossums, so I don’t know what was wrong with her. But it seemed she was close to passing.
© Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 35943988 - Virginia Opossum; Walton County, Georgia. March 28, 2017.
I wasn’t sure if I should let her be and let nature take its course, or ease her passing. As I debated to intervene or not, a single, large black fly buzzed about waiting to perform his role in the course of nature.
Walton County, Georgia
Comentarios
Amazing photographs. Beautiful writing. It is hard to know what the right thing is to do sometimes...it sounds like you were blessed to spend the last few minutes with that mother Opossum.
Añade un comentario