Taking a Walk on the Wild Side With My Ugly Urban Friends

Did you ever have a bias that you knew was wrong, could not be supported by logic, but your brain just stubbornly refused to budge from it?

Here’s one: I hate possums.

My family has lived in three houses in Orange County over the years--all of them urban central--and we’ve had to share our backyard with a possum at every one of them. Or maybe the same critter. Who can tell one from another?

At the first house my environmentalist wife decided to set up a compost heap near our backyard wall. We became the Disneyland for possums. Possums were coming from New Jersey to feed at our place.

No doubt, possums have it tough. And their ancestors were here before mine. Plus they’ve never actually done me any harm. But my heart still jump-starts every time I lock eyes with one of them while throwing out the trash at night.

None of this, of course, is going to put me in good standing with Lt. Marie Hulett at Orange County Animal Control. Possums, she says, are our urban friends. They eat rats and mice and snails and slugs. “They’re nature’s little clean-up crew,” she says.

And no surprise we citizens have to share our space with one. There are thousands and thousands of possums in urbanized areas of Orange County, Hulett says, a natural part of our surroundings: “They adapt very easily to any environment.”

Hulett gets lots of possum calls, almost every day: “That’s because when people see them they are startled and aren’t sure what to do.” Here’s Hulett’s advice to callers: Just leave them alone. “They don’t want to bother you; they’ll just go about their business,” she says. “They’re docile, harmless creatures.”

So I’m trying to improve my attitude. But one question Hulett cannot answer: Why do possums have to be so ugly?

Around the Town: Once again California comes too late to matter much for the presidential nomination process. Orange County Republican headquarters said Wednesday it knows of no Bob Dole appearances here scheduled so far. Steve Forbes, as you might expect, canceled his March 20 speech at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. But Patrick J. Buchanan is still on--so far--for March 22 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine, speaking to the Orange County Forum. . . .

If it’s potential vice presidential candidates you’re interested in, former education secretary and political talk-show guest veteran William J. Bennett speaks before the Orange County Business Council on March 28, also at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. . . .

Women will be bicycling and walking together, then hearing talks and songs about women at Mariner’s Park in Newport Beach on Sunday morning. It’s part of the third annual local celebration of National Women’s History Month. . . .

Robert Englund is taking time between movie roles to read from Dr. Seuss at the Laguna Art Museum Gallery at South Coast Plaza on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. Freddy Krueger does “Horton Hears a Who.”. . .

Gangly George Archer, defending at the senior Pro Tour stop in Newport Beach this week, has never been one of the glamour names on tour, even as a former Masters winner. But here’s one reason he’ll have a lot of rooters when he tees off in the tournament at Newport Beach Country Club on Friday:

The day after winning at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa last year, Archer spent a full day at Dove Canyon Country Club in South County helping out the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Archer was so impressed with the Orange County group, he approached tournament organizers and convinced them to include Make-A-Wish as a beneficiary of this year’s tournament.

Pretty Good Feedback: Like most nonprofit agencies designed to help the poor, Feedback Foundation Inc. in Anaheim came up short when the federal government reduced its contribution. Short by about $150,000. But it’s getting donations it hadn’t expected--more than $1,500 in nickels, dimes, and quarters. Feedback provides daily meals to 2,000 seniors. The pocket change is coming from hundreds of people it supports.

“It’s amazing to see our clients, on such tight budgets, give to help these programs,” says executive director Shirley Cohen. . . .

Wrap-Up: Veterinarian Anita Henness of Garden Grove--”The Possum Lady”--gives speeches and publishes pamphlets on all the good that possums do for us, and why we need them. She’s founder of the National Opossum Society and, according to Lt. Hulett, Henness is the country’s foremost expert on possums.

But you think she’s going too far? Her favorite possum sleeps with her as a pet. Henness has seventeen possums (only one indoors). But she doesn’t like to encourage them as pets. Few know how to handle them, or what diet they need, she says. But she does want people to drop their fear of possums: “Possums are the last to get good care. They’re not one of the glamour species.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.