March 8

It snowed all night and several hours into today, with a driving wind out of the east that is typical of a nor’easter low that sits off the cape. I took a ruler out to the back, in a spot that isn’t subject to drifting too badly. Nineteen inches of new snow since yesterday afternoon and at least 6” more is forecast.

The drifts in our front dooryard are nearly four feet deep in spots, and the front entryway is completely blocked.

Just before bed last night, we checked the back porch to see if our surrogate new pet opossum had visited. She’s been regularly coming now for the past two weeks, foraging under the feeders for discarded sunflower seeds. Sure enough, she was sitting right on the porch, using her front paws and long snout to push aside the snow that accumulated around her, oblivious to our watching her from only a couple of feet away.

Where she goes during the day is only a guess, but we’ve seen tracks that seem to lead across the access road to the neighbor’s garden shed. And, when we first discovered her, the dogs gave chase while she ambled in that direction. (I kept hoping that she’d perform the coma-like seizure and drop dead, only to see what the dogs might do.) If she comes again tomorrow, JD wants to name her Pat.