Scary stuff with my dog last night!

[singingpixie]

I was letting my wonderful 20-lb dog, Dax out last night into our fenced-in backyard, when she started barking and running toward the back corner. It's not very well lit back there so it took me a second to see what she was barking at- it was a possum! I of course started screaming bloody murder because all I could think was that a wild animal could certainly kill Dax very easily, and it could be rabid- it seemed like it took me forever to get "steve- possum" out of my mouth- DBF steve ran out there and in his "I mean business" voice told Dax to come inside, and thank god she listened. Amazingly there isn't a scratch on her and she seemed happy and proud that she "protected" us but I was a nervous wreck- I had nightmares all night! Her shots are all up to date and like I said I didn't see any bites or scratch marks, but I'm still watching her really closely for the next couple days.

 

[minkydog]

Glad Dax is okay. I wonder what happened to that poor possum. It's probably still playing dead somewhere.

 

[Todd&Copper]

We have raccoons and opossums (and deer and rabbits) in our neck of the woods, so I always have to take out my pooches on a leash after dark. I remember the first time I saw an opossum - it was hissing at us. I was terrified, and I think my little girl (40 lb. collie) scared it. We just kept walking by and went home another way.

 

[TxJasmine]

Just to put your mind at ease - I recently learned that possums almost never have rabies. They have a very low body temperature which is too low for the rabies virus to survive. Possums are actually fairly harmless animals.

 

[horseshowmom]

Just to put your mind at ease - I recently learned that possums almost never have rabies. They have a very low body temperature which is too low for the rabies virus to survive. Possums are actually fairly harmless animals.

And, when confronted, they generally do just "play possum" and pretend to be dead.

 

[Chicago526]

I had the exact same thing happen with my mother's beagle and a racoon! The beagle was barking like crazy in the corner of our fenced backyard, and wouldn't come when I called her. I trudge out there to drag her back, and when I got to her I looked up and saw the BIGGEST raccoon I've every seen in my life. I froze, and all I could think was "Racoon's carry rabbies...." Fortunatly the raccoon just non-chalantly hopped down off the fence on the other side of our yard and waddled away.