Photo courtesy of J.A. Bolton

Photo courtesy of J.A. Bolton

ROCKINGHAM — You know there are not many folks that will stand-up before a crowd and tell their story. Why I used to have a friend in Moore County that it won’t nothing that would keep him and myself from telling a good story about ourselves in front of the biggest crowd we could find. Now mind you there might have been a little truth stretching but it was all in fun.

Not only was my friend Ed a good storyteller he was also a part-time animal rehabilitator. Yes-sir, he would take in abandoned or hurt animals and try his best to nurse them back to health. Then he would return them back loose in the wild.

One day a friend of Ed’s called and said that he had found three baby possums by the side of the road. Seems their mother had been run over and the little ones were now orphans.

Well, Ed told him to bring them on over and he would see want he could do. You know Ed didn’t know much about raising baby possums but now he was the only hope the little critters had.

By placing some cotton in the bottom of an empty fish aquarium and feeding the young possums with a syringe, he hoped to be able to raise them.

We all know that sometimes even with our best efforts, things don’t always turn out. So, it was with two of the baby possums. But, for the third possum things were going well and it grew like a weed.

As the baby possum grew Ed got more attached to him. Why, he even started calling the possum “Dude.” Somehow, Ed just couldn’t turn this little critter back into the wild to fend for himself.

As time went on Dude started sleeping in the closet and eating under the kitchen table. He even became housetrained and started riding in Ed’s car.

Seems one day as Ed and Dude were riding around in the horse country around Moore County, they happened upon a traffic check point.

As Ed came to a stop, Dude who had been sunning himself on the dash, jumped down into the floorboard just as the patrolman came to the driver’s side window.

As the officer checked Ed’s license, he also spotted Dude in the floorboard. “You can’t be riding that possum around loose like that” explained the officer. “You better take that possum to the Zoo in Asheboro right now and I mean right now” the officer told Ed.

Well Ed thanked the officer and drove off.

Won’t but about a week or so later that Ed and Dude were riding around in another part of Moore Co. and somehow met the same officer. The officer spotted Dude on the dash, made a U-turn and put the blue light on Ed.

Why Ed hadn’t got stopped good before the officer was standing beside the driver’s window. “I thought I told you to take that possum to the Zoo in Asheboro just last week,” roared the officer. Ed said, “Sir, I did but you know we had so much fun that we are headed to the State Fair in Raleigh right now.”

Well now you know just one of the many stories of my friend Ed and his possum Dude.

J.A. Bolton is author of “Just Passing Time,” co-author of “Just Passing Time Together,” Southern Fried: Down-Home Stories,” and just released his new book “Sit-A- Spell” all of which can be purchased on Amazon or bought locally. Contact him at [email protected]