Playing Possum?

Our dog Teddy totally just made up for any frustration we've had with him. While out for his evening stroll in the backyard I kept hearing him bark. As I got closer to the window, I could hear him growling in-between barking. It had a pattern & was just odd behavior for him to continue barking. Being the scaredy cat I am, I asked Ben to step outside & check it out. When Ben called me out, it was to show me the possum Teddy was guarding, lying dead in one of his dirt holes. I dreaded the children messing with it tomorrow, so I put on some shoes & grabbed a shovel to throw it over the fence into a wooded section.


Ben: are you sure it's dead?
Me: Yeah, we've been standing here awhile and it hasn't moved at all.
Ben: ever heard of playing possum?

At that moment a lightbulb went off & I realized the wisdom of my husband using that phrase. I probably wouldn't have listened to him otherwise. It was indeed alive & started moving when I tried to get the shovel underneath it. Since it was snarling & probably already panicky, I quickly decreed we all go in the house & give it time to depart. I waited 10 minutes before taking Teddy back out with me. He tracked it's path all over the yard to the fence where it left.