Possum, All In A Row

So, yesterday morning, as I do every morning, I let my cats outside for their morning romp. A little while later I went to the kitchen for a second cup of coffee, and, as I looked out the back door, I saw three of my four cats out on the patio, looking rather intently out to the backyard. Lately, another cat has been coming over to our yard for a not-so-welcome-by-my-cats visit. I figured by their behavior, this visitor was probably out there and my cats were getting ready to have their usual "fit" about it. So I walked outside, just in time to see what they were actually looking at. Up on the block wall that runs along one side of my yard, was a really big possum. As I further investigated, there wasn't just one possum, but three, all prancing single file along the wall, coming from the very back of the yard up toward the patio. Now I started to have a "fit" because I knew if the cats were to tangle with those possums, the outcome would not be good. So I began trying to get the cats to come inside. Of course, being the obedient little darlings that they're NOT, they immediately ran further out into the yard and totally ignored my pleas for them to come into the house.
The possums kept coming closer and closer, until finally one of them either jumped or fell into a rose bush. Ouch! This made the cats really go crazy! Finally, Cali, whose nickname is Scaredicat anyhow (because she's always been afraid of every little thing), got spooked enough that she ran to the back door and waited for me to open it so she could get inside. But the boys, Prowler and George, continued to ignore me. I heard the possum make a little crying noise, I'm sure it was getting its hiney full of thorns off that rose bush, and that scared George into the house.
Prowler ran back toward the back of the yard. One of the possum, not sure if it was the same one that fell in the rose bush, actually charged Prowler. I didn't know possum did that, but Prowler was sitting under the arbor, and this possum came running right toward him at full speed. When the possum reached him, he turned and ran to the house, and the possum turned and ran back into the bushes.
My camera is not working, or I would have gotten a picture of those possum all lined up on the wall. From tiem to time, we've had possum live in our garage and in the drawer of a chest on the patio, but I've never seen more than one at a time, and certainly not three adults, nor did I know they would actually "charge" another animal.
Hopefully, the cats will think twice about ignorning me the next time there's another animal in our yard. I doubt it. :=)