Kids are such strange and wonderful little beings, and that's never more apparent than when they hit the imaginary friend phase. One day, your kid announces that they have a new friend, but only they can see and hear and talk to that friend. It's a little creepy but super cute! Some kids' imaginary friends are other kids, or adults, or mythical creatures. Other kids have imaginary pets that they care for and tend to, even though the pet isn't real. There's nothing to worry about if your kid has an imaginary friend, it's a great way for them to develop those creative thinking skills and imagination!

But sometimes, your kid's imaginary friend or creature turns out to be ... not so imaginary. It's hard to know as parent where the line between real and imaginary is, since kids tend to exaggerate. But after reading this story of the mom who learned that the imaginary creature living in her daughter's room was VERY MUCH REAL, you might start taking what your kids say a little more seriously. This is hilarious!

Caitlin Burch lives in the countryside just north of Columbus, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters, 7 and 10. Last summer, her daughters told Burch and her husband that there was something living in their room. The words "rat" and "creature" were used, and it scared her 7-year-old so much that she refused to sleep in there. Burch and her husband investigated and didn't find anything, and told their daughters it was nothing. They figured it might be a mouse, so they set some traps and called it a day!

A few days later, their older daughter ran into their room and they went to investigate. Lo and behold, the imaginary creature was not so imaginary.

The imaginary creature their daughters told them about? An opossum. A very alive, very real opossum that had been living in the girls' room for THREE DAYS. That opossum is just chilling in the closet, not a care in the world. The girls were vindicated and will probably never let their parents live this down, LOL. And it ended well for the opossum, too.

Burch's husband was able to remove it and release it back into the wild. So the moral of the story here? All the imaginary creatures your kids talk about might not be real, but it's worth checking it out every time, just to be sure.

READ NEXT: 10 Benefits Of Having An Imaginary Friend