Contrary to popular opinion opossums are great rearrangers.
Each night while we sleep they dig up oaks and trade them
with pines. Armies of them—all you can see are marsupial 
feet—heave boulders to fill unsightly lawns that cry out for 
structure. Possums have a feel for flow without sacrificing 
coziness. They hate automobiles and throw them over cliffs
where possible. Otherwise, they bury them. We know a team 
of possums who hauled a bank branch, along with its sign 
flashing time and temperature, to a nearby lake and tossed it 
in. They have to make compromises, of course, so they put 
everything back before dawn. This is why they sleep all day, 
upside down.

—first published in Off the Coast