Charlie-O-Possum

My wife worked as an Animal Control officer and I always complained about the menagerie of animals we had at our home. If I was Art Crazy my ex-wife was Animal Crazy. We had dogs, cats, rats, snakes, hedgehogs, lizards, frogs, birds, bugs, fish and a parade of other animal I can't even remember coming through our home over the years of our marriage. I'll never forget the day she called me to see if I would take care of an orphaned baby animal.

"If you don't take care of this orphaned animal I'll have to put him to death."

"Why can't you take care of him at the Animal Shelter?"

"I have to go out on calls. Please he's really cute."

"What kind of animal is he?"

"I'll bring him by the house. If you don't fall in love with him when you see him I won't say another word about it."

Jackie came by the house in the Animal Control truck. I was working on a new puppet for my nightclub act. I walked over to the truck and Jackie had a box on the hood with both her hands inside the open top.

"Jackie I don't think I can take of whatever it is. The nightclub manager wants me to add another puppet to my act by this weekend."

She lifted both her hands out of the box. His tail was curled around her right index finger and the baby possum was hanging upside down. In her left hand she was holding a small baby bottle and the inverted possum was feeding on it.

"Do I get to name him?"

"Sure Robert."

"Give me Charlie-O-Possum, I'll take care of him."

It wasn't hard to fall in love was Charlie. Our two sons helped feed our little friend the possum.
The only problem was your right index finger got tired during feedings.

After three weeks we found a wildlife center near the local zoo. They said they had already released a group of orphaned possums. The young possums helped each other make it in the wild till they got old enough to lead a solitary life. Charlie-O-Possum would become the wildlife centers mascot. We were asked not to visit him in the wildlife center so he could get use to his new handlers.

Next summer we went to the zoo and our sons wanted to go to the petting zoo. There was a mob of children around an animal at the center of the petting zoo. My sons Mark and Micheal went over to see what all the fuss was about. In the middle of the group of kids was a young adult possum. I had never seen a fluffy possum with clean hair. The children loved the possum and the possum seemed to love the children.

I asked the possum's handler what was the possum's name.

"The family of four that brought him to the wildlife center called him Charlie-O-Possum but we thought that was too corny so we just call him Charlie."

The Vollrath family possum had become a superstar.

An extended version of Charlie-O-Possum will be part of the novel The Smile.