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Lifestyle & Human Interest

3 Days After 7-Year-Old Complains of 'Creature' in Bedroom, Mom Discovers Hiding Opossum

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It took three days for Caitlin Burch, a mother living with her husband and children in Ohio, to believe her two daughters when they told her that “something” was in their bedroom.

Children seem to share the universal fear of creatures lurking in their bedroom closets or hiding underneath beds. Many a parent has spent nights inspecting a child’s bedroom, checking in all the likely hiding places, just to help their children see there are no real monsters to be afraid of.

But Burch’s daughters, ages 7 and 10, were insistent that a “creature” really was living in their bedroom, and ran to tell their parents about it.

“They used the words ‘creature‘ and ‘rat,'” Burch told Buzzfeed News. “The 7-year-old insisted that there was something.”

So Burch and her husband went to inspect, but could not find any evidence to validate their daughter’s concerns.

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“The 7-year-old would not sleep in her room,” Burch said. “They sleep in their room every night, but I told her she could sleep in the guest room that night if it made her feel better.”

Thinking perhaps it could be a small mouse, Burch and her husband did buy a few mouse traps and set them out, just in case.

A couple of days later, Burch’s 10-year-old came running to her parents, insisting that she had seen the creature again.

This time, when Burch’s husband went to investigate, he found out what his girls had been talking about. A white-faced opossum with dark beady eyes and dark black ears had been living in the bedroom closet.

“It had crawled into one of the dresses hanging in the closet,” Burch said. “It was peeking out of the neck hole.”

The Burch girls celebrated their victory while Burch’s husband spent the next two hours working to get the opossum out of his house and back outside.

“It’s very much an ‘I told you so’ moment for them,” Burch said of her daughters.

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Burch said that looking back, she did remember some clues that the opossum had left about its presence.

“We realized after the fact that we should have noticed some things,” Burch said.

“Some toys knocked over. Dog’s food missing, so we know it had been in the rest of the house, too. The dog never made a peep the whole time it was in the house.”

Burch originally shared her story as a brief response on Twitter to Chrissy Teigen, who had shared a story about trying to find a hamster.

Burch’s photo of the opossum and quick one-sentence story description was enough to send Twitter users into hysterics.

The Burch family has found the humor in all of it, and have even started sleeping in their own beds again.

“My girls have thought this whole thing was hilarious,” Burch said. “I told them my next tattoo is definitely going to be a possum or opossum, I don’t even know which one it actually is.

“I’m thankful that the girls were willing to ever go to sleep in the house again,” she added.

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A graduate of Grand Canyon University, Kim Davis has been writing for The Western Journal since 2015, focusing on lifestyle stories.
Kim Davis began writing for The Western Journal in 2015. Her primary topics cover family, faith, and women. She has experience as a copy editor for the online publication Thoughtful Women. Kim worked as an arts administrator for The Phoenix Symphony, writing music education curriculum and leading community engagement programs throughout the region. She holds a degree in music education from Grand Canyon University with a minor in eating tacos.
Birthplace
Page, Arizona
Education
Bachelor of Science in Music Education
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Lifestyle & Human Interest




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