Possum sighting this morning.

[bakerjw]

On the way to work this morning, a momma possum (I know that it is opossum but I live in Tennessee and want to fit in) crossed the road ahead of me. she had at least 4 little ones hanging onto her back for all that they were worth. It was a cute way to start off another glum day.
I've raised chickens for years and have never had problems with possums or skunks. Raccoons OTOH have been dispatched regularly.

[Winger Ed.]

There's no shortage of them here.

Unless they're being destructive, I leave them alone.
They eat a lot of bugs, and ticks seem to be a favorite for them.

They can get rabies, but like in cats-- it's almost unheard of.

[CastingFool]

I've seen one already this year. Unfortunately, it didn't make it to the other side of the road. I usually leave them alone, too, unless they try to get in the garage.

[Char-Gar]

I have one that visits my backyard bird bath for water about dawn every morning. I look forward to seeing him or her each day.

[jim147]

My dog plays with them in the yard about every day. The growl at each other then she grabs it and gives a quick flip. Then she sits there and waits for them to get back up until she gets bored.

Now on raccoons they die seconds after she sees them. Breaks their necks and leaves em for me to clean up.

I do have an opossum on the half shell making holes in the yard I need to find one evening.

[Winger Ed.]

I do have an opossum on the half shell making holes in the yard I need to find one evening.

A friend of a friend got themselves a weekender house out near one of the area lakes awhile back.
They just bragged on all the nature, and cute wildlife in the neighborhood, until-----

They pulled up one evening and saw a armadillo going through their prize flower beds like a earth moving machine.....
Then, it wasn't cute little wildlife anymore...........
For about a mile, you could hear the Mrs. screaming, "Shoot the devil"!!!!

[gwpercle]

You don't often see the words Possum and Cute in the same sentence ...
Down here in Louisiana even the gung-ho Friends of Animals , you know the ones who think all animals have rights ... Don't give greasy , beady eyed possums any consideration at all .
One advocate claimed possum were in a food group with Sweet-Taters and not animals that required love and affection ...
I'm Cajun ... and will eat most anything ... but draw the line at the garbage can raiding possum ... No Way .

Quick Joke : What do you call baby possums .... UGLY !!!

Real answer: Male is a Jack , Female is a Jill and babies are Joeys ...
I kid you not ... I couldn't make this stuff up !
Gary

[bakerjw]

Figures that they are Joeys as they are marsupials.

[Tatume]

How many people does it take to eat a possum? Three. One to eat and two to watch for cars. :-)

[Winger Ed.]

Years ago, I had a place that was over run with possums.
I was investigating the possibility of eating one, but didn't know anything about them.
So, I asked a buddy who was from from Louisiana.

First thing he said was, "I'm a city kid. I don't eat that ****".
I finally pried it out of him----
He told of trying his Grandma's recipe for them a few years before:

"I did everything she said. When I pulled it out of the oven,
and saw its lips pulled back from them teeth holding the apple in its mouth---
It looked so gross and nasty, I threw it in the trash--- pan and all".

[Gofaaast]

I miss the days of my youth when we went possum kickin. Foggy early fall nights were hard to beat. Don’t see many where I live now. Skunks out number them about 10 ta 1. Monday morning on the way to work I spotted one for the first time in several months. Darn thing did a 180 after I had moved over half a lane (edit) to avoid it. Crows were enjoying it that afternoon on my way home. It was a nice silver. Silvers were a buck and blacks were a quarter back in my trapping days.

[wgr]

I think they are born on the road dead

[richhodg66]

Possum sightings are very common on my place and they get a pass, in fact, I'd go out of my way to protect one to a certain degree.

Coons get shot if seen. Coyotes too.

[gwpercle]

Figures that they are Joeys as they are marsupials.

But where did the " Jack & Jill " part come from ...
... Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water ...nursery rhyme + possums ???

[WebMonkey]

3 times i have caught a possum in the hen house.
multiple hens decapitated while the possum is munching on another.

countless live trapping around the coops.

i respect everyone's protocol on their property.

here, possums around the livestock don't make it back into the woods.

:(

[Beerd]

somebody once told me "there ain't no 'possums in the Adirondacks".
..
.

[bakerjw]

I miss the days of my youth when we went possum kickin. Foggy early fall nights were hard to beat. Don’t see many where I live now. Skunks out number them about 10 ta 1. Monday morning on the way to work I spotted one for the first time in several months. Darn thing did a 180 after I had moved over half a lane. Crows were enjoying it that afternoon on my way home. It was a nice silver. Silvers were a buck and blacks were a quarter back in my trapping days.

So you intentionally swerve to hit animals? SMHID.

[uscra112]

Hate 'em.

They come in the cat door at night, and leave green poop on the floor.

Shot one in the yard. Had to leave immediately for the day, so left the carcass for the buzzards.

Came home....there's another opossum chowing down on what's left of the first one. Gross!

I'd sooner starve than eat one.

[Wheelgun]

Any possum that is within a couple miles of the house or my parents place don’t live long. If you’ve ever seen or had a horse with EPM you’d exterminate them too.

[Multra]

I like opossums, I toss them some food and pet them when they wander in the yard.

[alfadan]

When I was a kid, I guess mom heard something under the house in the crawlspace. She thought it was a cat, so went under with a knife and flashlight. She came across a hissing possum! She chased it around a while and scurried out and said "That is no kitty cat!" She asked dad for his .44, but he thought that unwise. We left the access panel loose and heard it knock it over and find a more peaceful home.

[Texas by God]

We call them "Opie"- like on Andy Griffith.
And it is possible to grin like a possum eating......you know.

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[fixit]

Not long ago, when leaving church, I decided to harass some of the Canada geese by chasing them with my truck. One of the ladies of the church saw this, and texted me, asking the question "what did those innocent geese do to you?". My response left her laughing for quite a while after. "The feathered possom is one of the most annoying creatures on the planet, especially when they start attacking people." She had never heard the term 'feathered possum', and it tickled her to the extreme. Told her about possum' on the half shell, too.....she thought that was hilarious!

[uscra112]

EPM. Another reason to hate 'em:


Most cases of Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis are caused by an apicomplexan protozoan, Sarcocystis neurona. Horses are infected by ingestion of S neurona sporocysts in contaminated feed or water. The organism undergoes early asexual multiplication (schizogony) in extraneural tissues before parasitizing the CNS. Because infectious sarcocysts are only rarely formed, the horse is considered an aberrant, dead-end host for S neurona. Like other Sarcocystis spp, S neurona has an obligate predator-prey life cycle. The definitive (predator) host for S neurona in the USA is the opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Opossums are infected by eating sarcocyst-containing muscle tissue from an infected intermediate (prey) host and, after a brief prepatent period (probably 2–4 weeks), infectious sporocysts are passed in the feces. Nine-banded armadillos, striped skunks, raccoons, sea otters, Pacific harbor seals, and domestic cats have all been implicated as intermediate hosts; however, the importance in nature of each of these species is unknown.

I've also read that they are carriers for tuberculosis.

[richhodg66]

Don't own horses and never will, so could not care less. Honestly, it seems like everything does in horses, anything stupid enough to eat itself to death probably should have been weeded out by natural selection a long time ago. Never heard the tuberculosis thing either and I don't see many people contracting that either.

I wonder if the carry Corona virus?

[uscra112]

Probably. Cats and dogs can.

[Hickok]

Years ago, while out in the woods, I saw a possum walking along with its tail coiled up around a big wad of leaves. Apparently it was building a nest somewhere.

Really made me stop and stare!:bigsmyl2:

[MOshooter]

Back in the 70's our neighbor found a oppsoum that had been run over with a bunch of babies that survived. The neighbors brought them home and bottle fed the little opossums, they were very playful and after being released the opossums always came back to play with us kids.

Growing up I wouldn't hesitate to grab a opossum by the tail, pick them up and carry them around. haha

[Jester560]

We have one that comes to our back door every night for food. The wife unit has been feeding it for a couple weeks now.

We have to be careful when we let our dogs out as my male Staffie would killnit.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[Winger Ed.]

My Dad used to leave his garage door open all the time, and even the folding stairs going into the attic.
One night he pulled in after dark, and surprised a possum.

It ran up the stairs into his attic.
He thought:
'No big deal. I'll close the stairs, and wait until tomorrow. By then, it'll be hungry, I'll open the stairs, and it will run out'.

That wasn't one of his best ideas---
Later that evening, the possum dug a hole in his living room ceiling, and dropped down into the house.
A few seconds later.........things got real busy........

[lksmith]

Possums don't last long around here. Right after I brought my puppy home, one "treed him" on the porch one night and was eating his food.
I picked up the possum and took it to the woods. The next night my puppy treed a possum under some wood, again I grabbed the possum and took him to the woods and held him up so he could climb the tree. The next evening when I got home, I found a dead stiff possum at the corner of the house. Haven't seen one since, apparently my 110# puppy (he's under 2years old so still a puppy) is keeping them away. Along with coons, and coyotes. I used to see all 3 on my gamecams pretty regular, not any more. Haven't seen a coyote on any of my cams since the night i caught a pic of my pup at the back corner of my 15acre patch of woods

[lksmith]

A friend of a friend got themselves a weekender house out near one of the area lakes awhile back.
They just bragged on all the nature, and cute wildlife in the neighborhood, until-----

They pulled up one evening and saw a armadillo going through their prize flower beds like a earth moving machine.....
Then, it wasn't cute little wildlife anymore...........
For about a mile, you could hear the Mrs. screaming, "Shoot the devil"!!!!

I don't reckon any of you have even gone armadillo hunting before? Had a bad problem with them digging holes in pastures causing cattle to hurt or break their legs. We ride around the pastures at night with a .22lr and a 12 gauge dillers get the 22, skunks get the 12ga (occasionally 22) we leave coons and possums alone. Lot of fun, with or without alcohol, they sure do put on a show if you hit them anywhere other than the head

[Winger Ed.]

Years ago, we had a outside cat that lived on our front porch.

A raccoon had been coming up and eating all her cat food. So I set out a box trap.
It triggered one morning, and as I was leaving to go to work, the Mrs. told me it had sprung,
I had a raccoon in it, and added---- "We aren't eating it"!

I skinned it anyway and thought I'd make a hat or something from its shirt.
One day a co-worker had said he'd never seen a raccoon, so I brought in the pelt to show him what one looked like.

He asked me how I'd gotten it, so I told him.
Then he made the observation, "That's a high price to pay for stealing a little bit of cat food".

[megasupermagnum]

I had a parts truck at my dads house. One day my dad needed an alternator, and I knew the one from that truck would work. When he went to open the hood, he came face to face with a possum which had made a leaf cocoon where the battery used to sit. They don't make much noise, but apparently the light hiss, and teeth scared dad pretty good for a second. He dropped the hood, but apparently the possum didn't get hit, and it was never seen again. Sorry dad.

[toallmy]

Years ago I had a Jindo dog that would bring them to the yard and lay down and watch them until , I would go out and make her come in the house . I always figured she thought someone was stealing her possum when it was gone the next morning .

[Cosmic_Charlie]

They moved North up the river valleys and many we see have mangled ears from frost bite.