My outside cats were real skittish tonight, looking off towards the neighbor's yard and not wanting to eat or settle down and hang out with me. I walked around my yard looking for what scared them. Then I saw a possum walking around the neighbor's yard. It didn't have any young ones hanging off it. I've never heard of a cat vs. possum confrontation but I suppose a possum can get aggressive if it has young or is staking out new territory. Anyone know about opossums and if they ever compete with cats for territory?
we have resident possums...they won't confront unless attacked...they just stay still..or play dead very beneficial to the environment..probably just traveling thru. ..looking for food
I'm allergic to cats or I would have one. I miss having a little pet very much, but I suppose this isn't the time for me to be dealing with house training a puppy.
After I lost my beloved little Chipper, I eventually got to the place where I realized that I not only missed Chipper, but I missed just having a little dog to sit on my lap or snuggle at my feet at night. I knew that i didn’t want a puppy because it would probably outlive me, and I didn’t want the work of trying to house train one. I decided that an older dog would work better, and started looking at the ones that were being re-homed. I deliberately didn’t choose one that looked like Chipper, because i know that I would try to transpose the new dog , and not care about him for himself. When I found Poodle, he was exactly right. He is about 4-5 years old, so not too young or too old, and he meets my needs perfectly. He is totally happy here, and also loves Bobby as much as he does me; so he is fine that way and not just My Dog, like Chipper was.
I suppose we'll get another pet someday; I know my husband misses a dog in the house. To keep the thread from wandering any farther OT, maybe we'll get a possum. (Sorry, Dwight. )
I actually had a baby possum for a while ! I was working in Western Washington where they have gazillions of possums, and as I drove around a corner, there was this strange little creature, weaving back and forth in the middle of the road. Naturally, I pulled over and parked and went back to see what it was that was stranded there, and to see if it was hurt , or if I could help the poor little fellow. Turned out that it was a baby possum, and he was scared to death. He just sat there, weaving back and forth and hissing at me. I knew he would get run over if I left him; but a good look at those sharp teeth told me that I didn’t want to try picking him up, either. I had a little container in my truck, so I scooped him up into that and took him back home with me. He must have been pretty young, and he didn’t really know how to eat much of anything; but I got a pet baby-bottle and fed him his warm milk with that. He would weave and hiss until he got the bottle nipple in his mouth, and then he was fine, and I could even pet him. My daughter, Robin, came to visit me, and she loved the little guy, too, and learned a pretty good imitation of doing the weaving and hissing routine, which she still likes to show people all these years later. Because I found him basically dying in the road, and the old Ford cliche’ was “Found On Roadside Dead”, we named him Edsel. I had him for a couple of months and then he just died. I guess there was something else that he needed that I didn’t know, because he seemed to be doing fine and acted healthy up until then.
The name variation is regional. possum, opossum - same animal ... unless it's neither. Then it's a nopossum.