Written by Ruth Ann Ruiz Features Editor
Marilyn Harris, a Texas native, has been living in Galveston since 2007 and has lived in her current house since 2014. You could drive right by her house on a corner lot in Galveston, and you’d most likely not notice that there is more than an average house with a garage and some sprawling live oak trees.
The live oaks add some interesting character to the corner house, so you might turn a bit and look at the beauty of the trees crawling up the wall and over the roof. While you peer up at the mighty oak trees, perhaps you will catch a glimpse of the four-legged, long tailed critters staring down at you from the thick limbs of the magnificent oak trees.
“Possums are wild animals, and I don’t make them a pet,” Marilyn explains as she tells the tale of how she became known to her church members and closest friends as the possum lady.
It was because of the other critters that live in the yards and meander into houses in Galveston that Marilyn was drawn to possums.
“Possums keep the house and yard free of roaches and mice,” Marilyn said.
Her daughter, Victoria, says they also help keep the snakes out of the backyard.
When Marilyn learned that a church member trapped unwanted possums that needed to be relocated from homes and businesses in the region, she offered her backyard as a relocation area.
As she said, offering her backyard for this purpose saves her money on pest control, and she has a fondness for four legged critters. In her backyard is plenty of green foliage for the possums to duck between and hide under in addition to the mighty oak trees that provide shade for the possum’s daytime snoozes.
Though Marilyn doesn’t live on a farm or out in the country, she gives the impression of living close to the earth. While we sat and chatted in her parlor, Delta, a rescue dog, was snuggled on her lap.
According to Marilyn and Victoria, Delta is fascinated with each new possum that arrives at the home on the corner, but to date, Delta and the possums have not yet become best buddies. The possums maintain a distant, frenemy kind of relationship with the dog.
Victoria shared stories about the various pets she and her siblings were allowed to have throughout their childhoods with their mom and dad. One such story revealed that at one time, the family had a pet skunk.
So far, mother and daughter calculate they have had about 24 possums brought to the backyard. Not all of them stay. They are, after all, free to find their way to someplace else, but why would they?
In the backyard, the possums are fed and are mostly sheltered from other predators. However, Marilyn does take in foster dogs from the Humane Society, and one foster dog scared away some of the possums.
She also has two cats, and feral cats find their way into the backyard, where they, too, nourish themselves with some food, water and some quiet time in the shade of the foliage or on one of the porch chairs.
When a possum is brought over, there is some excitement as it is let out of the trap and quickly scampers away from the humans. The possums make their way around the property, finding a place to settle in or not settle in.
“We don’t put name tags on them, so we really can’t tell them apart, but we give each of them a name when they come here,” Victoria said.
They dubbed the most recently arrived guest Sundance.
“Many times, they dig burrows right near the house and the lattice around the AC units,” Victoria said. “I hear them at nighttime running across the roof.”
Marilyn and Victoria report that the house is kept free of pesticides and so is the backyard, making it a safe place for the indoor and outdoor animals to exist.
Thanks to the efforts of Marilyn and her daughter, the possums are well-fed on cat food, table scraps and very finely diced apples and grapes. Victoria does the dicing. Every day, she makes sure the possums are given a sweet treat.
Possums, according to wild animal expert Hal Newsom, are not fussy eaters.
“They’ll eat just about anything,” Newsom said. “They’re a scavenger animal.”
But Marilyn and Victoria enjoy knowing their backyard visitors are welcomed with sweetness.
Should you happen to have an unwanted possum wandering onto your property that needs to be humanely relocated, you can reach out to https://www.varmitbusters.com. If you do, perhaps your possum will end up in Marilyn’s backyard. Or it may go to someone else who has discovered the value of making friends with these curious looking, nocturnal animals of the region as an organic pest control method.
Marilyn wraps up the interview on a cheerful note.
“I always have room for one more,” Marilyn said.
This might mean one more possum or one more foster dog or a feral cat, or she might mean one more human friend. Not only does she enjoy four legged critters, she also enjoys friendships with countless humans.
