The Opossum and My Garage

[Zaphoon]

I was pulling into my driveway a few nights ago a saw a brown opossum in my yard. I pressed the remote button for my garage door to open and the stupid thing went and ran into the garage and hid (there are some really good nooks to do so - if you're a rodent).

My daughter went in to chase him out and we both thought the thing had gone. A few hours later, my wife told me she was hearing things in the garage. It was still in there and making a mess. I didn't see the thing so I left the door cracked open enough for it to escape if it cared to. A while later I shut the door. The next morning the evidence pointed to it not having departed but I didn't have time to play hide & seek with it.

The following night, my wife got the idea to open the door enough to allow for an escape and place some cat food on a paper plate a few feet outside on the driveway. It had to be hungry by this time. I placed the food as planned, opened the door a foot with the remote from the car in the driveway and sat and waited. I soon saw its snout peeking from under a desk in the garage. It smelled the food and cautiously crept out and started eating at which time I was able to close the door behind it without it sneaking back in.

I've never seen a dark brown opossum before: they are usually gray. Anyway, the mess has since been cleaned up and I'm happy to be critter free.

 

[flower]

my son when he was younger about 2am came yelling into our room dad,mom there is a big rat on the deck we jump out bed it was just apossum.
roy chased it off and we all went to bed laughing about ron big rat.

 

[abbas child]

Now. PZ, isn't it good you have cats? LOL...maybe just the food. Sneeze.

 

[rose]

Those (possums) are just the most ugly creatures! Glad he/she is gone.

We have our own little wild life drama unfolding here. A Coopers Hawk has decided to visit my bird feeders lately. Coopers Hawks don't eat seed, or suet, not even bark-butter. They eat songbirds. I am so not happy about this! ... I read up on them, and learned that they usually squeeze their prey to death with their talons, but sometimes they prefer to drown them instead. So, Don said my "worst case scenario" will be the @$%$'d hawk drowning one of my little birds in the bird bath.

 

[KeeKer]

Rose and PZ at least your's are little! I had 4 moose in my yard the other day! A momma and 3 babies.

 

[abbas child]

Diane, a Cooper's Hawk killed one of my Barred Rocks last winter. I really hate to see them around.

Colleen, I bet that was amazing to see in your yard!

 

[Zaphoon]

Regarding my 2 cats - a great help they were! Scaredy cats, for sure! I let them into the garage (there is a door that opens into the house) and Pounce, the fat one, opted to stay close to the door while Cinder just stared at something I couldn't see and shrugged her shoulders at me.

Pounce is good at bringing me little moles he catches. I guess this critter was a little out of his league. He's such a panzy!

Rose, I'll bet a BB gun would be of use against your hawk!

 

[CAHPAH]

Zaphoon
What you needed was a good dog! He would have gotten that varmit out in no time.

Rose
Last winter I had a Coopers hawk swooped down and grab a starling out of one of my feeders. There where no leaves on and a light snow so we had an unobstructed view as he sat on top of the poor creature and started eating it alive. Nature can be rather gruesume, but hawks have to eat too, I guess.

 

[abbas child]

Jim, a good dog would have been great for the oppossum. We eventually had a dog whose only real gift was loving and being charming. I had to save her from a snake.

PZ, cats sure do differ in their hunting ability. Katie the Calico (originated from a barn cat) could catch anything...most exciting was a lizard under the sofa while I was on it... but as I only first saw the tail was convinced she had a small snake. Running in fear to the back door I called to Phil, who was roofing his workshop. He replied he was busy and would "take care of it later." That's when I looked and realized it was only a lizard, which I took away from a very angry cat.

Meanwhile, Marco, who thought he was a lion--never caught a mouse. In fact, he looked at them with disdain. If a buffalo had walked through the door, I am sure he'd have attacked.

 

[Peg B]

The first time I saw a opossum was when a dog kept barking at it. The more he barked the longer the opossum froze - "playing opossum."

The next time I saw one was on the way to work. He was in the middle of the road. I peeped my horn, screamed, and blinked my lights. Then I remembered the opossum was doing what he does to save himself, ie freeze. I said a prayer for him and drove around him, afraid I would see his body when I came home that night. I did.

Within two days I saw another opossum in a different road on the way home from work and went around him and told him I was sorry but he would probably die. I began to think (really) there must be a story here.

The next day I went to work with my students, who all had emotionally impairments and behavior problems. I told them about the two opossums and that they needed to learn that if they (the kids) wanted to play successfull in life as the opossums wanted to cross the road then they needed to change or they were going to get run over too. The kids rolled their eyes at me but I thought it was a great story and they got the point -it's all about learning and adapting and not just doing the same old thing. Or as things change around us we had better change too. Take care, Peg

 

[LizT]

i had a cat that used to bring rabbits and squirrels home.
i was pretty impressed.

 

[brooksea]

It's "Possum," y'all! O'possum is indigenous to Ireland, not North America! ;-)

 

[abbas child]

CJ, I first thought we were doing the "Southernisms" again, and began writing a short comment, which I decided to scrap. This morning in telling Phil about your Irish O'Possums, he agreed with you... at which point I felt compelled to do research... Phil has that trait of being very rarely incorrect. "answers dot com" says:

"Some believe that possums and opossums are both the same animal. This is quite incorrect, however.

The "possum" of North America is just a shorter name for an opossum, but true possums are different from opossums, and not related at all, except by virtue of both animals being marsupials.

* Possums belong to the family Phalangeridae and order Marsupialia, while opossums belong to the order Didelphimorphia, although they are also marsupials.
* Opossums are found only in North America, although there is a "water possum", also known as the yapok, which is found in central and South America.
* True possums are found in New Guinea, Australia (including Tasmania), Sulawesi (Indonesia) and a few other small islands in the Pacific region. Although not native to New Zealand, the brush-tailed possum was introduced into that country over a century ago and has subsequently become a pest.
* The North American Opossum has a bare tail. All varieties of Australian possums have furry tails.
* There are many varieties of possums in Australia (and New Guinea), including Gliders and the Cuscus. there are more limited varieties of the opossum.
* Captain Cook's botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, named the Australian animal "Possum", referring to it as "an animal of the Opossum tribe" because he believed there was a physical resemblance.
* Opossums were named by Captain John Smith in 1612.

 

[brooksea]

Counsel to 'Possums

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time’s bones are a-aching;
And this same ’possum that grins today,
Tomorrow won’t be faking.

’Possum Poetry

Take a look at the "Beopossum" fragment at the above site, ripped off from Beowulf. Glad it's a fragment and not the whole epic! LOL

 

[abbas child]

Whoa, interesting page. How about the Beopossum...My father is a Beowulf reciter. I want to show that to him.
And this one...

The Mighty ’Possum (Recently discovered by Dennis Morgan)

The mighty ’possum
Gallant, bold
Nature’s blossum
Its pelt ne’er sold

I do wonder why possom skins aren't spoken of...?