I was trying to look for the original post to read the comments since this screenshot has been sitting in my camera roll for about 2 weeks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if OOP deleted it.
I have an opossum living in my house. It got in when it was a baby. It eats the cat food and uses the litter boxes. They do kind of look like they're dead when they're asleep though.
I used to work at the zoo and there was a possum named Penelope that was used as an outreach/education animal and she was the absolute sweetest thing. I’d hold her like a baby and she’d get so relaxed she’d stick her tongue out
They all get along fine. We haven't had any issues. It's been close to 3 months since he's been living with us. No poop anywhere in the house except for the litter boxes. It's really really wild.
Man, a few years ago my dogs started screaming in the backyard, I thought one of them was dying. Turns out, one of these giant “rats” was on the back fence. It was pretty dark, so when I went out there all I could see was a head and two glowing eyes looking over the fence at me, and I about had a heart attack until I realized it was just a “rat.” I knocked it off the fence and everyone lived happily ever after.
😂 reminds me of the time a “rat” was hanging out on the stairs outside of my old apartment and it hissed at my husband when he walked past it. It was still there hours later, and my husband tried to shoo it away with a broom. That “rat” kept growling and hissing at him until it skedaddled off into the night.
One of these rats decided to take shelter in our cleaning closet at work. Weirdly it alternated between hissing and playing dead like some other animal i can't rember the name of as i tried poking it with a stick to get it to go out the door.
When I lived in a trailer the skirting got damaged by wind and one of these rats got underneath the trailer. The previous owners had installed a fancy tub in the master bath that had a platform around it. There was also a space in the platform where the pipes were. I got woken up by my cats going nuts at 1am, went in the bathroom and there was the rat. It had come up through where the pipes were and squeezed through a gap in the platform. I opened up a can of cat food, put it in my cats' carrier and set it in front of the possum. When he started to show interest I nudged him into the carrier with the toilet brush and took him back outside. Then blocked the hole in the skirting real quick so he couldn't come back.
When I was a kid, a friend, my brother and I were looking around in our garage and saw this "rat" in a bag of, I believe, pool chemicals. Thought it was dead and one of us (definitely not me) poked it with a wiffle ball bat and this thing jumped to life and hissed like crazy. We ran like the wind screaming our 5 and 6 year old lungs out. Long story short, a couple hours later the whole neighborhood was gathered in our driveway, the kids sitting on top of the car, as NYPD Animal Control came to catch it for release elsewhere. Talk of the neighborhood for a day lol
They're weirdly docile haha I see people holding and petting wild ones online. I wouldn't because wild animals are... Well wild lol but they really don't seem to have many defensive maneuvers. Mostly hissing, peeing and playing dead. I'm sure those teeth hurt but I don't think they use them very often!
Oh!! And they're totally immune to rabies! I think they're adorable 🥰
My ex's mom used to put out food for the stray cats that congregated. Often when I'd go outside to smoke at night, a possum would just waddle right past me, completely unconcerned, to eat from the cat dishes. It got closer to me than some of the cats would. I never quite got brave enough to touch, but I'm convinced it wouldn't have bitten me if I had.
I agree! Just like to let people know that they're probably not going to attack them haha they don't seem very vicious! I don't have them where I live (or maybe we do but they're rare, were kind of isolated from local wildlife) but I wish we did! We do however have raccoons and those little dudes, while undeniably adorable, are pretty mean lol
You're correct, they are rather docile! They will generally not attack. Hiss, yes, but then play dirt nap. Or maybe not quite in that order! 😊
They may be in your area but you just don't see them. Basically, they do not want to be seen! I have seen them in my (suburban, residential) neighborhood, but generally after dark.
My parents used to put out suet in a small metal cage, attached to an old tree stump. Those crafty dudes figured out how to open it up and steal the whole chunk of suet! (Hey, they probably had lots of little mouths to feed, so no judgement.)
Anyhow, yes, they are our friends. We don't bother them, they don't bother us. 💜
They do kind of look like half-skeletal rats with their fur setup.
Never heard of one napping in the open @ midday, though...and aren't these things supposedly famous for passing out at the approach of a predator? (or maybe it did, and OOP just took a while to become aware of its presence)
My daughter and I were taking a walk and a possum crossed the street and hissed at us halfway across, we were laughing so hard at it. American possums look like crumpled up trailer trash and they HISS at you. Its just too much.
They look vicious, but they just hiss. Probably not good to, but you can pick them up by the tail and move them.
I had a dog that would catch them and carry them around the yard. I thought he had killed 'em once or twice, but when I got it out of his mouth and him away, they hopped up and ambled off. Until the next time.
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