Garden Friends (gross version)

I found another dead opossum in my yard. This one showed a bit more 'Buddy love' evidence (wet from the slobber and a bit chewed up). I don't really like that my dog is killing things in the yard, but he's as tired of sharing his dog food as I am of buying dog food to feed the local wildlife.

This little guy crawled into my garden to die on a Friday morning. The kids and I found it right after hubby left for a weekend away. Being the responsible mommy that I am, I gave my son a stick and let him poke at the dead opossum to his little hearts content. When he got tired of that, I gave him the garden hose and let him spray it with water. We then all left for school and work... and for the weekend.

My theory was that trash day was not until Monday so the dead opossum would be better off in the outside air rather than bagged and stinking up my garage in the 102 degree Texas heat.

We got back Sunday night to find this...



Wow, it is barely identifiable as an opossum anymore. The heat and flies and bugs had caused this thing to shrivel up like a mummy--in just two days.


Another two days later and it was even more decomposed. Then just 1 week after his untimely demise, the opossum was nothing but a dry pile of brittle bones and a tiny bit of fur.



This picture was intended to show the pretty blooms on my artichoke plant, but it also shows that there is almost ZERO evidence of a dead opossum left in my garden after just one week.

I'm well aware this topic is gross and disgusting and all, but I find it fascinating just how quickly nature took care of this little mishap.


Okay, thanks for humoring my disgusting facination. Here is another pretty flower