Sugar and spice, who’s saying lies?

Opossums are marsupials (pouched mammals) found in USA and Canada. A variant- called Possum- is found in Australia, and is more closely related to the Kangaroo. Opossums have a unique defence mechanism.

When threatened by predators such as bobcats, dogs or foxes, they play dead— they flop on to their sides, stick their tongue out, baring their teeth, and close their eyes or stare fixedly into space.

A foul-smelling fluid is secreted from the anal glands. However this is purely an involuntary, physiological response by the body— not a conscious act by the opossum. It regains consciousness after a period ranging from 40 minutes to 4 hours.

The phrase “Playing Possum” is based on the opossum’s behaviour, to describe someone faking an act when not willing to deal with a situation.

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Sugar, the mole-rat, started her day in her usual grumpy fashion. She vigorously dug the ground, spraying mud all over the entrance of the burrow of the other mole rats, just out of spite. When a mole rat from the other burrow slowly poked his nose out, Sugar completed her revenge by dumping another clod of earth on him and shouted “Take that, you horrid rat!” before disappearing down her own hole.

Though the mole rats all lived together as one big family, Sugar was an exception. Just like every other mole rat, she had been born into a large colony of mole rats, all happily living together. But unfortunately, Sugar’s personality was quite contrary to her name.

Sugar hardly ever smiled, and when she laughed, it was at someone else’s expense. She regarded every mole rat with suspicion, and worried that they were all out to make life miserable for her. She picked up fights with every other mole rat in the colony, and accused them of things they had never done, all the while pitying herself for the injustice meted out to her.

The other mole rats tried their best to convince her that they were her family and meant only well for her, but she wouldn’t listen. In the end, she moved out of the colony, and made her own separate burrow, and lived there.

Sugar did feel a bit lonely at times, but her ego did not allow her to go back to her family and friends. “I’ll find better companions than them!” she thought. But Sugar’s hot temper and terrible moods were well known to every other creature in the region, so no one came forward to be friends with her. This made Sugar all the more grumpy and unapproachable and the other poor mole-rats who tried to win back her confidence were left disappointed.

That day, after being mean to a few more mole rats, Sugar was roaming around looking for a few root tubers to chew on when she found another creature following her. She ignored it at first, but eventually turned around to face her stalker.

The creature was just about as large as her, but hairy all over, with sharp claws and sharp teeth. Funnily, it had a pouch. “Who are you? What are you following me around for?” Sugar tried being as rude as possible because, as usual, she didn’t trust strangers (or anyone, for that matter), and didn’t want this one to think that she was weak.

“I’m Suzy, an opossum”, it said. “I may give birth to my babies in some days, and I am new in these parts. I don’t know where to look for food and I won’t be safe on my own. Will you let me accompany you?”
Sugar thought over this.

She was quite bored with being on her own, and the opossum didn’t seem very aggressive, and didn’t seem big enough to attack her or cause her any harm. But as usual, her mind was full of suspicious thoughts. What if the opossum was after her burrow? No, opossums did not live in burrows, she reminded herself. But what if this was a trap?

Maybe the opossum meant to betray her hiding place to other opossums and they would all kill her and eat her up! But she hadn’t seen any other opossums around, she thought again. After a long time, she reluctantly agreed. “Alright, you can be with me. But if you ever hurt me or cheat me in any way— I’m warning you— that will be the end of our friendship.”

The opossum agreed, and soon enough, she was seen moving around hand in hand with Sugar. While Sugar slept in her burrow, Suzy slept in the hollow of the tree just above the burrow. After a long time, Sugar was seen laughing and talking freely, and the other mole rats were stunned at this strange friendship.

“I wonder how long this friendship is going to last”, said a grandfather mole thoughtfully. “Suzy seems like a good opossum, but you know our Sugar’s temperament! There’s no saying when she’ll pick up a fight with that good-natured opossum and get into trouble.”

“Only we mole rats can put up with Sugar and her tantrums”, said one of Sugar’s aunts, in agreement.
Meanwhile Suzy and Sugar had grown rather close, and had pledged their protection to each other. “Any time you need me, just call me”, said Sugar. “I’ll always be there for you!”

“And I’ll give up my life before I desert you in your time of need!” said Suzy, equally sincere.Then one day, trouble came in the form of a hungry dog that spotted both Sugar and Suzy while they were on one of their food hunting expeditions. With an excited bark, it came after them. “Run!” cried Sugar, as she and Suzy took off at top speed.

But poor Suzy could not run very fast. It was almost time for her babies to come, and she was awfully slow. Sugar, unmindful of Suzy’s condition, ran as fast as she could, while shouting encouragingly to Suzy. When she caught sight of her burrow, she shot inside it and hid there, while Suzy was cornered by the dog outside.

Suzy didn’t know what to do. The opossum felt that her end was near. The dog stood inches away from her, tongue hanging out, ready to attack. And suddenly, Suzy passed out. She flopped down on the ground, her eyes staring fixedly into space. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth and saliva foamed around it, and her body started giving away a strange smell. The surprised dog went closer, sniffed at her, and turned away in disgust. “Dead! What a waste of the chase!” The dog moved away, for he enjoyed fresh kill.

Sugar, who had forgotten about Suzy earlier, now slowly emerged from her burrow wondering if Suzy had managed to escape. But to her shock, she found Suzy lying dead! “Oh my dear Suzy, you died saving me!” she howled. Suzy lay there, still as a statue.

The next few days, Sugar stayed inside her burrow, all upset about Suzy’s loss. After a week, when she emerged from her burrow, she heard the other mole-rats whispering. “Ten offspring, you say?” “No, twelve— and all of them very cute— ”

Curious, Sugar interrupted them. “Who’re you talking about?”

“Why, your friend Suzy, of course!” said one mole.

“Funny, you’re her best friend and you didn’t know?”

Sugar was furious. “Suzy is dead! I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Well, you can look for yourself”, said a mole rat, pointing to where she could find Suzy.

Angry and upset, Sugar raced to find the opossum. She found her looking very much alive, with a litter of twelve young tiny opossums, and happier than ever. But the moment Suzy saw Sugar, she froze.

“So you’re alive!” cried Sugar indignantly. “Why did you fool me like that, playing dead?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about” said the opossum coolly. “You’re the one who deserted me in the hour of danger. I was just lucky that the dog didn’t touch me when I fainted. I woke up to find myself all on my own.”

“Liar!” cried Sugar. “I did come back for you. And you pretended to be dead. I mourned for you all these days thinking that I’d lost you and here you are—”

“You’re the liar”, said the opossum hotly. “You said you would be there for me and you ditched me!”
Sugar of course, would never admit that she had been unfair in any way. “You’re the cheat”, she said, finally. “You faked your death and fooled me.

I shall never be friends with you again. I’m going back to my family.” And Sugar stalked off and went back to her old colony, much to her family’s delight. “When did I play dead? Is she crazy? But now I have my babies to think of”, thought Suzy, as she smiled at her young fondly.