Museum director Cara Duell entertained council members with an update on the process of cleaning excess items from the city’s museum building.

While going through items stored in the Adobe House museum, Duell encountered numerous items she wasn’t prepared to see.

One caused her to call Stiles and tell him she was quitting in five minutes.

It was an opossum in a box labeled “baby blankets.”

After the startle of the sight, she removed the box from the shelf.

“As it was coming down, it tipped a little, and we didn’t know if it was alive or dead, but it went flying across the room,” Duell said. “Needless to say, it was dead.”

Surplus items from museum buildings and from other city departments will be sold May 14 at an auction at the county fairgrounds.