Playing Possum

The downside to running on a road with no sidewalks is occasionally having to deal with roadkill. If I run when it's dark it's significantly worse because you have less time to react (I've stepped on a dead squirrel once... but it was part of the street at that point... still disgusting.).

The worst kind of roadkill, and this isn't even close, is possum (or opossum, I think). As I was running the other day I came to the top of a hill and there lay a possum. I've heard of possums playing possum (dead) so, even though this one had blood on its head, I wasn't going to be fooled. Afterall this might be one of those aspiring academy award possums; maybe he takes his acting to a different level. I wasn't going to fall victim to its acting genius, so instead of just stepping around it, like I do other roadkill, I crossed all the way to the other side and did a kind of tip toe high step run so the possibly dead possum couldn't hear me and attack, and so I wouldn't touch as much of the pavement that it's disgusting body was laying on. It was a shameful sight, not befitting a man, for sure. 

But I'm alive... Undignified, but still alive.