One big disadvantage of owning a home...

This is the biggest disadvantage I have run across so far. On Monday, we walked out on our back deck and there was an unbelievable stench. Smelled like something dead--maybe a couple of days. I had just had a yard sale on the back deck on Saturday and had not noticed any unusual smell.

We got a flashlight and a rake and crawled just under the edge of the deck. We could barely see something that looked like a huge cat that had lots of flies all over it. I'll spare you the details, but when we tried to pull it out, it started coming apart. It was a bloated opossum. My husband has an unusually weak stomach, but with both of us working together we got it out and into three plastic bags and tied up well. This animal weighed maybe 10 pounds at most. I have never smelled anything so bad. We both agreed that this is the only time we have ever wanted to be renting so we could just call the landlord to take care of this problem.