Nature in your own backyard!

Long time no talk. :) Well tons has happened, but we'll just rewind a little so I don't bore you with every detail of my life.
This is our opossum we found in our yard one day. We were all sitting talking and I tell Holden, "K, Bud it's time to pick up the dog poo." (That's his daily chore.) He goes willingly, which doesn't usually happen. He's back inside as soon as he had opened the door making a sound he only makes when he is scared out of his wits. Like for instance the snakes he's almost come in contact with, etc. Anyway, he comes to me, and says, "Jaggers (our dog) is eating a rat!" Now for those of you who truly know me that is a bad word in our house. My whole body shuts down when I hear that word, I can think clearly, I want to just pass out. Why? Because I've had them in our old house in our attic before and I wanted to die.
Anyway, lots of emotions here sorry. After debating on what the heck to do I look out our kitchen window and I find this huge rat, but am a bit more calmed at the fact that it is a opossum instead. He's laying there dead (looking). I'm all panicked and luckily my man is home, sleeping, but still home (he worked night shift). So I run in and tell him.
Another side note: My awesome dog Jaggers is guarding our back door. He is not letting any of my kids go outside. He literally sat on the back door so they couldn't go out. Loved him that day. :)
Russ is Russ and I'm Denise so I'm freaking out and he is slowly waking up to listen to his crazy wife. All the while, I hear the kids say, "his ears are twitching, he's breathing, HIS EYES ARE OPENING!" Their screaming, I'm crying (on the inside), Russ is slowly getting up to load his pellet gun. As soon as my dog saw Russ he backs off and stopped protecting b/c he new Russ would take care of it. That's amazing to me. He sets up camp and starts to shoot the creature. I take the kids upstairs so they don't watch and Russ took over and he dies.
Later I research opossums and find they aren't anything like a rat, except for they look like a huge one. They actually are, "nature in your backyard." They eat rats, mice, snakes. Now I'm really crying as I read this b/c he was trying to help. We still would've had to kill him though b/c Jaggers and hurt him, while protecting us. So I am thankful for my dog today and my hubby. So glad he was home to take care of this! Crazy stuff huh?