Here is our wild baby opossum again. Oh, how tiny he looks! I love that pointy little face with its suspicious little expression, those incredible little fingers, that long pencil of a tail. He is crouched on a makeshift ledge between a shovel and a very fat Buddha-like stone cat.
The stone cat is a memorial for Missy. Missy (short for Mystery) was Boo's sister, and Boo is our very fluffy, very black stealth cat who lives a top secret and undercover life all of his own and is impossible to photograph. I am quite sure, however, that Boo and wild baby opossum have a sneaking-around-the-edges acquaintance with one another.
There are any number of owls, raccoons, opossums, frogs, snakes, geckos, and mice who visit our back yard. And we are hoping to make it a good home for all such wild creatures.
As I speak, we are filling out the paperwork to see if we might qualify for a Texas Wildscape Backyard Wildlife Habitat sign. These two signs are posted in a neighbor's yard just a few blocks away, and you can see the wild habitat behind this post.
I must say I do believe our backyard can rival this one for wildness!
To certify as a Texas Wildscape, your yard must be composed of 50% native plants and have a year-round supply of food, water, and shelter for wildlife. We have two huge pecan trees, several fig trees, a peach tree, a very secret garden, a flock of birdhouse/birdfeeders, a Rube Goldberg water fountain, a birdbath, a kitty watering bowl, a Sleeping Beauty hedge of wild roses, two compost piles, a brush pile, a wood pile, a junk pile . . . Really, I think we might qualify.
Hmmmmmm. Another ongoing work-in-progress?
Yes, yes, along with The Kissing Fence and A Hundred Guardians, now this venture into wildscapes. Plus I really really need to clean my house ~ it is of major priority, in fact, for my house is verging on some kind of tipping point. But how does one get around to housecleaning when things like saving the wilderness, saving the planet, saving the universe, all seem so much more important? There is simply too much to do for one lifetime, isn't there?
Onward, then, through the fog!!
And I could not resist adding a photo of "Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks, 1834. For I do long for the peaceable kingdom!
