Possums Are Creepy!

[Mysteria]

I saw one when I was younger, creepy thing. Even creepier...

My sister had a new Wegmans opening near her and we decided at 1:00am to go and see if anyone was camping out, which there weren't! Anyway we were driving through the parking lot and she saw what she thought was a cat, it was a white skunk! I didn't have my camera with me, I had taken it out of my jacket pocket as we left her house, or I would have taken a picture of it.

Oh skunks are another story. I have so many skunk stories.

 

[darlak]

I agree with everyone who said that they're ugly, creepy and look like giant rats.......but I do have a soft spot for them. When I was about 10, my best friend's grandfather shot one and then found that it had 2 babies. My friend and I spend much of that summer bottle feeding them every 2 hours round the clock. They would wrap their tails around out fingers and just hang there. We finally set them free at the end of the summer. They still seemed a bit small, but they were turning mean and starting to bite.

 

[DawnCt1]

I feel sorry for them because they do not have pretty teeth and it makes them look a bit demented. That said, they are north America's only kangaroo like critter, being marsupials, and all.

 

[DawnCt1]

Here is page I found. This website noted that rabies in possums can occur but is rare.

http://www.opossumsocietyus.org/fre...rphaned or injured opossum. What should I do?

 

[DawnCt1]

Look at this possum. He is so cute! I love his little eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7KupXaP9Yw&feature=related

 

[#1hockeymom]

Opossums live in North America, while possums live in Australia. Either way, They seem to sneak up on people! Or we sneak up on them. ACK!

 

[krissy2803]

I think JimFitz should weigh in here.

HAHAHA You beat me to it!
That has got to be one of, if not THE funniest things I have ever read on this board!
I remember reading that back in..what..2005?

 

[saucymb]

We had a pet 'possum once. 4 years ago. His name was Junior. Junior was a baby 'possum riding in his mama's pouch, when my brother's dog got ahold of the mama. Junior fell out, but mama was a goner. So my brother picked him up and took him inside.

We put him in a hamster cage (not being a family that normally had hamsters and such, I'm guessing that's what kind of cage it was). My brother talked to someone who did animal rescue that suggested we hang a tube sock from the top. So we attached one using a safety pin, and that 'possum climbed up and in that sock. He stayed there for about 23 hours a day.

We fed him chicken salad for some reason, along with other bits of food. Now, this was during the last months of my dad's life as he was ending a four year battle with pancreatic cancer. People were bringing food like crazy, and everyone wanted to go see and feed the baby 'possum we had on the back porch. My dad got a kick out of seeing him climb on my brother's shoulder.

After about 2 weeks, Junior started to get very ill, he wouldn't eat, or climb out of his sock. After a little research, we discovered that 'possum's are in fact vegetarian by nature and the chicken and other bits of meat we had given him were not digesting very well, and in the end it killed the little guy.

Yes, we had a little funeral.

I'm just realizing that this sounds a little strange. Hmmm. Well, my family is anything but normal.

BTW, we were very careful to always wash our hands thoroughly after picking him up. I only picked him up once or twice, it was a little ewwww for me.

Also, it was so cute to watch him eat a baby carrot. 'Possums's have opposable thumbs, so they could hold their food just like we do. And it wa a little disconcerting to see him grooming himself with his little "fingers"...and that's all I have to say about that.

 

[Aardvarks]

Meh, we don't have any marsupials over here.

I would be happy to have an opossum in my yard, and for some odd reason they remind me of Avril Lavigne.


Note I f you find a dead and stinky oppossum with its teath all bared back and its tongue hanging out with a rigid body............do not bury it!!!!!

 

[Feralpeg]

Look at this possum. He is so cute! I love his little eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7KupXaP9Yw&feature=related

The possums around here, don't really look like the one in your video, Dawn. Ours have tails with no fur and look a bit more rat like. That being said, I don't hate them. I don't really hate any animal. In fact, I had rats and mice as pets when I was a teen. The possum just seemed really creepy in the dark when I was wrestling Griffin away. Griffin weighs 100 pounds, so it was quite a tugging match to remove a dog determined to investigate his new friend!

 

[freckles and boo]

I would be happy to have an opossum in my yard, and for some odd reason they remind me of Avril Lavigne.

What? I have had them (and raccoons) in my yard many times. I never made that connection.

 

[DawnCt1]

The possums around here, don't really look like the one in your video, Dawn. Ours have tails with no fur and look a bit more rat like. That being said, I don't hate them. I don't really hate any animal. In fact, I had rats and mice as pets when I was a teen. The possum just seemed really creepy in the dark when I was wrestling Griffin away. Griffin weighs 100 pounds, so it was quite a tugging match to remove a dog determined to investigate his new friend!

Ours don't have fur on their tails either and do look rat like too, so when I found that one on youtube, I was impressed that it was so darn cute.

 

[DawnCt1]

We had a pet 'possum once. 4 years ago. His name was Junior. Junior was a baby 'possum riding in his mama's pouch, when my brother's dog got ahold of the mama. Junior fell out, but mama was a goner. So my brother picked him up and took him inside.

We put him in a hamster cage (not being a family that normally had hamsters and such, I'm guessing that's what kind of cage it was). My brother talked to someone who did animal rescue that suggested we hang a tube sock from the top. So we attached one using a safety pin, and that 'possum climbed up and in that sock. He stayed there for about 23 hours a day.

We fed him chicken salad for some reason, along with other bits of food. Now, this was during the last months of my dad's life as he was ending a four year battle with pancreatic cancer. People were bringing food like crazy, and everyone wanted to go see and feed the baby 'possum we had on the back porch. My dad got a kick out of seeing him climb on my brother's shoulder.

After about 2 weeks, Junior started to get very ill, he wouldn't eat, or climb out of his sock. After a little research, we discovered that 'possum's are in fact vegetarian by nature and the chicken and other bits of meat we had given him were not digesting very well, and in the end it killed the little guy.

Yes, we had a little funeral.

I'm just realizing that this sounds a little strange. Hmmm. Well, my family is anything but normal.

BTW, we were very careful to always wash our hands thoroughly after picking him up. I only picked him up once or twice, it was a little ewwww for me.

Also, it was so cute to watch him eat a baby carrot. 'Possums's have opposable thumbs, so they could hold their food just like we do. And it wa a little disconcerting to see him grooming himself with his little "fingers"...and that's all I have to say about that.

I love your story. At least you tried to help Junior and it made a difficult situation a little bit better.

 

[Whiste Pig]

If you think posssums are weird, what about armadillos? Little armor clad pointy nosed things that can roll up into a ball! It's just wrong.

Have you seen the commercial where the armadillo superhero man is creating a credit card with his family's picture on it and his wife comes in the room and scares him and he rolls up into a ball? It's great.

 

[crz4mm2]

My Boston Terrier HATES possums... She will kill them given 1/2 the chance. They DO play possum LOL. Last winter, she had "something" cornered outside. I heard her barking and saw her "tossing" something around on the icy ground. I went out to see what she was doing. She had a possum that was very much alive, but was playing 'possum' ! LOL. I had to get a shovel between her and the possum to get her away from it.
They do have razor sharp teeth if they ever fight back.

 

[Aardvarks]

What? I have had them (and raccoons) in my yard many times. I never made that connection.

http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo....skg/over_the_hedge/avril_lavigne/overcomp.jpg

http://media.canada.com/8c8b3290-2b08-4dc6-8e3e-2cc645fdfe05/081808_avrillavigne.jpg

 

[Michelle67]

Yeah, they are pretty creepy. They really like apples, and when we lived in our old house they used to come in our back yard a lot in late summer to snack when our apples were falling off the trees. One night when my daughter was about 15 she had a friend staying over, and the house was really hot (old house, no AC) so they had gone out in he back yard to sit and cool off for awhile. My husband and I were in bed, but still awake watching television, when we heard a blood curdling scream. We went running downstairs thinking something terrible was happening, and found my daughter's friend hysterical in the kitchen because there was a "huge nuclear rat on steroids" in the back yard, and it hissed at her. She thought it was our stray adopted cat and walked toward it, and it apparently hissed and scared the bejeebers out of her. Poor kid. Being the nice, supportive people we are, we laughed...

 

[ChristineAndMatt29]

My mom feeds a couple cats on our porch and everyyy night we hear the dishes rattling around and it's ALWAYS a big, fat possum (or raccoon). They love cat food! They are so creeeepppy -- I agree! Raccoons are even worse. The way they eat with their little hands is so freaky.

 

[DawnCt1]

There are very few critters that I don't like. I could never kill a mouse and I would even have trouble killing a rat, although I would be terrified!
Has anyone noticed any really FAT, I MEAN OBESE squirrels there are this year? We have had a couple in the yard, that I really wondered how they could get up a tree!

 

[julie_yet]

*shudders* I hate possums. They're creepy and look like giant rats. Can you say R.O.U.S.?

There was a huge one in our fenced in backyard that I was trying to scare away but, shocker, it was playing possum and wouldn't move. It was lying on it's side looking dead except that every once in a while it would look right at me. I decided it was leaving my yard one way or another so I armed myself with a big push broom and gave my friend a rake. I thought we'd maneuver it out the gate but it was bound and determined not to go plus as soon as my friend Ricardo got within 4 feet of it he'd run away screaming like a little girl claiming that the possum was "eyeballing" him. So all alone with my push broom I swept/rolled the stupid animal out of my yard.