Morning possum.

This possum was frozen into position by my ferocious barking Yorkie. It froze long enough for me to go in and get my camera and take a bunch of pics. It eventually walked along the fence and disappeared. "Playing Possum" is a behavior of possoms. When frighten, they freeze or play dead. And while they do sort of look like big rats, they are related to kangaroos. They give birth to tiny "premature" babies with climb up into mom's pouch until they are ready to face this cold, cruel world. They also have prehensile tails, which means the tails can function sort of like an extra hand or finger.