Yes I named him, don't be dumb

I have a lot running through my head but not enough time to put it all into words, so instead lets enjoy a shorter story.

My animals have a heart, and sixth sense, for the pregnant. This usually plays out with pregnant cats, which is how we managed to get our Tuna George (later shortened to just "Tuna" since we found out he was a girl). Well recently Tuna and Peaches (my pup) wanted to spend an unusual amount of time outdoors...I immediately knew they had made friends, but what whom, or what, i was unsure.

One day I put the dog out and upon going to retrieve her I saw a black and white haired, something... upon closer inspection I found a very pregnant opossum hoping for an invitation indoors. She just stuck her little nose up against the window...and waited. I screamed and yelled, hooted and hollered, and unfazed she slowly moved her attention elsewhere.

We found out the next day that she has a boyfriend, and that they are very content living in our back yard. I am not. After a trip to the humane society, a trap was set. So far we've caught the male....our pregnant girlie has gone MIA. This is not amusing....

An observation

I love listening to interviews with authors. Over the years I have found a common trend: characters are not created, they just are. Much like a casting director picking the leads for the latest flick, there may be age, weight, and race requirements for a given role, however the personality of the individual is not dictated. The author can pick the characters, lay out the setting and the situation, and then they remove their hands from the keyboard and let their characters react. They allow their characters have free will over the story they're writing and instead of writing about what will happen, they write about what did happen. This is important. After an author is asked about a character they often respond, "She led me" or "He surprised me when he." When that happens you can see the author completely removes themself from the actual actions of the character. I believe at times the author had hoped for things to unfold a specific way but despite the wrong turns and missteps they don't give up on their characters. The author reacts to the characters choices and nudges them down a different path, ultimately leaving the outcome and ending up to those characters.