December 22, 2005

"Deck us all with Boston Charlie..."

Christmas tree possum surprises Pa. teen

ENGLEWOOD, Pa. (AP) — Mary Kathleen O'Connor, 16, doing some studying for school about 6 a.m. Tuesday, said she was the first to be startled by an apparent Christmas tree stowaway.

"I'm looking at the tree and the angel just pops off," she said. "And a second later, this head just popped up. The eyes were, like, glowing. I was thinking, 'Oh my God!' And I screamed."

And like, your eyes would glow, too, if you just popped up underneath the backside of Gabriel.

Other family members came running. "We looked at it and I thought it might have been a fake," said her father, Michael O'Connor, a Frackville attorney. "But then it moved its head. And I thought 'Holy Jeez. We're in trouble.'"

Well, I think you might be in more trouble with Our Lord the Holy Jeez for taking his name in vain. Be that as it may, I do enjoy the name "Frackville."

O'Connor called police, and William E. O'Donnell, a state Game Commission deputy wildlife conservation officer, removed an 18-inch-long opossum from the 8-foot Douglas fir the family had bought, bundled, from a dealer in Seltzer.

As well as "Seltzer."

O'Donnell caged the animal and released it in woods about five miles away. The tree, meanwhile, was still in the front yard where Patricia had hurled it. "The lights are still on it," Michael O'Connor said. "So is the stand."

I'm sure all the other outdoor-type possums appreciate the festive decorative addition to the yard. By the way, who's Patricia?!

Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!

Posted by Terry Oglesby at December 22, 2005 04:45 PM
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