MAGNUM
One morning I went out to my studio like always. Right past the banana plants and the Hawthorn tree covering Pepe’s pool. It wasn’t until I’d finished checking my emails and was headed back into the house that I was at the proper angle to see something moving in Pepe’s pond. It wasn’t 8am yet, so I hadn’t yet brought Pepe out.
But what was in his pool?
As I got closer I saw small hands and a tiny nose barely treading water. It was an almost-drowned baby opossum. I ran for a shovel. This was the only thing I had on hand to safely scoop him out and also to keep my distance should he be feeling surly.
But he wasn’t surly at all. He was exhausted and soaking wet. He was so wet that all his hair was flat on his body and I could see dead fleas on his skin. I touched his hand and he squeezed it, but then let go. His eyes were still open and his breathing was strong. I petted his head and grabbed a towel to wrap around him. I had to leave for a meeting in about a half an hour so I put the towel shovel on the ground with a little bit of cat food and wished him the best. I named him Magnum for a scene in Magum P.I where Thomas ends up treading water for like 24 hours before he’s rescued. It was hard to leave for the meeting but there was nothing else I could do for him. My only hope was that he would recover from exhaustion and be okay. I had to tell myself that it was out of my hands.
Upon returning from my meeting I went straight to the backyard to look for him and he was gone! The towel was there and a little bit of the cat food I left was gone too, but there was no dead Magnum. I concluded optimistically that he had survived.
It only took a couple days before I started seeing him again. And now he visits on the regular. His mom too.
And—FYI—every night since then when I take Pepe in, I put a piece of wood into Pepe’s pool for a ramp just in case there’s another little Magnum who gets enticed into the sea.
