Tax dollars at work

Last night the dogs were going crazy barking at something in the back yard. Richard and Randy went outside to investigate and they found a stranded possum. The boys tried to scare the thing away but we unable to do anything. The dogs eventually calmed down and we all went to bed. This morning brought a surprise; a dead one on the backyard lawn. One of the dogs must have eventually caught the possum as it was lying dead, wet and slightly bloody right outside our bedroom window. By the way, our windows are pretty good at blocking out sound apparently. Either that or possums don't make much noise when they die. Richard had already left for work and while I'm sure that I could have taken care of it, I didn't really want to. I figured that if I really had to, I could just keep the boys out of the backyard today until Richard got home. Then I thought about it. We have Animal Control in our area and one of their jobs might be to pick up dead animals from your backyard. I figured it was worth a call. A quick Internet search for the number and I was calling SEAACA (Southeast Area Animal Control Authority). After a little explanation and laugh with the operator (I said "dead possum" at the same time someone put a box on her desk and I think her brain mixed the two momentarily. She wasn't too excited about a dead possum on her desk until her brain straightened out the two signals) she took my information and said she would send someone right over. I was getting prepared to wait at home for the morning when about 10 minutes after the call, an animal control officer showed up at the front door. I put the dogs in the garage, the officer put his gloves on, took care of the possum and was gone with-in five minutes. It's a good day for me!