Possum sighting this morning.

[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.

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[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!

[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.

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[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.