Around midnight yesterday, I heard my dog barking outside. Since Kiba rarely barks, I went outside to check out what he was barking at. He emerged from the shadowy corner of our yard with something in his mouth. Thinking it was one of his toys that he hides around the yard, I told him to give it to me.
Kiba dropped it by my foot and immediately, I felt something was wrong. What he dropped by my foot was heavier than any toy I remember giving him. I looked down and saw a huge ball of fur.
Somehow, my dog had caught an opossum which frequents the yards in the neighborhood because so many of us have fruit trees. It would have been better if it was a completely dead opossum, but no, it had to be a half-dead opossum. I poked it with a broom and while it was definitely not about to get up and run away, parts of it would move slowly.
My dad bagged it up in a couple of plastic trash bags and dumped it in trash can. Hopefully it had a quiet and peaceful death in there. I hope it wasn’t just playing dead and is now thrasing around in our trashcan. If the latter were the case, the garbage man is going to get a hell of a surprise tomorrow morning.
Possums (southern vernacular) are tough as hell. that one is likely loose in the garbage can and pissed. Unless he thinks he’s woken up in edible garbage heaven. In any event, those suckers have lots of needle sharp teeth and mean claws. If he wants out of the garbage, he’ll get out before morning.
Tyger Tyger once brought me a small rattle snake. Thankfully, it was quite dead.
My doggie brought a dead kitten into the house, mangled a cat, caught a few birds, and several lizards. He got a possum once, and when we got him into the house and went to get rid of it, the possum was gone.
yea, tonight is the 2nd time my dog zora has done the same thing…. the first time she was barking, and i covered what i thought was a dead possum with a large bucket so that if the dog got out of the house she could not get it, and play with him some more… i decided to put him in the trash when i lifted the bucket and checked if he was dead by poking him, he did not move, i covered him again, and went to get a shovel, when i lifted the bucket again and tryed to pick him up with the shovel, he darted away! scared the shit out of me…. now again my dog is barking i go outside and she leads me to this thing picks it up… and i call her and she brings me her new possum… i take her in and get a light so that i dont get scared like the time before, this poor thing is missing some fur, has some blood and is still breathing! his head is sideways and it looks as though he should be dead, covered in saliva, but its been an hour and he is still laying there… i dont know what to do… i think i will leave him for my stepdad tom. morning!
here is a funny story about possums too
http://www.clearlight.com/~jtrosen/tony_stuff/june281998.html