3 Days After 7-Year-Old Complains of 'Creature' in Bedroom, Mom Discovers Hiding Opossum
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.
“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.”
These parents didn’t believe their daughters when said a “creature” was living in their room.
They were in for a surprise ? https://t.co/3wJtrKhEsO pic.twitter.com/it2XqjmvhQ
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 20, 2019
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.
Hi this possum was living in my children’s bedroom for 3 days before we believed them. pic.twitter.com/q2XwUjtkbV
— CAITLIN. (@itsjustcaitlin) March 12, 2019
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.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
