# A possum in my bed! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172 "2011-08-02T13:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/41 "2011-08-05T03:01:17Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I knowed folk what et them critters. Long with sweet taters. Back home in Texas, that wuz. You cain’t eat possum with sweet podaydoes, no suh. 'Possum and ramps, that’s the way you wan’to go now. . . ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/42 "2011-08-05T11:40:49Z")
“Ramps”? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/43 "2011-08-05T11:49:12Z")
> **[Allium tricoccum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allium_tricoccum)** > > Allium tricoccum (commonly known as ramps, ramson, wild leek, wood leek, or wild garlic) is a bulbous perennial flowering plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae. It is a North American species of wild onion or garlic found in eastern North America. Many of the common English names for this plant are also used for other Allium species, particularly the similar Allium ursinum, which is native to Eurasia. An edible plant, Allium tricoccum is used in a variety of North American and indig Al... > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > “Ramps”? Early, wild spring onions ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/44 "2011-08-05T12:17:46Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > I have not had the pleasure of a possum in my dwelling. > > I did, however, have a toad in the powder room toilet. I had my pants down and was about to sit down when I spotted it inside the bowl. It looked like a turd. At first, I thought, “Man, somebody forgot to flush!” > > But then it occurred to me: how would the turd stick to the side of the bowl under the rim like that? Can you poop crooked that way? Wouldn’t it slide down into the water? Was it some kind of explosive diarrhea? > > As I was puzzling over this, the “turd” blinked at me. > > Yeah, I screamed. Having what you thought was a piece of crap that hadn’t been flushed suddenly come to life tends to do that. Somehow, I remembered to get my pants back up before I went running out of the bathroom in a panic. I can only imagine what would have happened if I’d sat down and that thing had hopped up and bumped my ass. I might still be unconscious four years later. > > Edit: After he laughed himself sick at me, my dad went in there, grabbed the toad out of the bowl with a dish towel, and threw it out the front door. Sounds like an except from that new book, “The Night Mr. Hanky Came to Town”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/45 "2011-08-05T13:15:24Z")
> [@chizzuk](#): > > I have not had the pleasure of a possum in my dwelling. > > I did, however, have a toad in the powder room toilet. I had my pants down and was about to sit down when I spotted it inside the bowl. It looked like a turd. At first, I thought, “Man, somebody forgot to flush!” This was at my grandma;s in Kentucky - it was a scorpion climbing up the tub drain as I stuck my head under the water to wash my hair, kneeling on the floor. I shrieked, hit my head on the faucet as I jerked up, stumbled around w/ a half-wet head while yelling for my dad. He came in, picked it up w/ a napkin and repatriated it to the side yard. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/46 "2011-08-05T14:30:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Put the possum in a cage and feed it on a diet of persimmons for several weeks. I’ll go look up the rest of the recipe for you. Give me the persimmons, provided they’re ripe. Nothing better. The damn possum can just die. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/47 "2011-08-05T16:09:42Z")
We’ve had the bat-in-the-house thing, and now we may have the possum thing. My neighbor told me she saw a baby possum in our yard. It hissed at her before it sauntered off. But the one that takes the prize is when my parents moved into a used trailer when their new house was being renovated. I was helping them move in when I took a potty break. I looked over into the tub, and there were a few scorpions in there. I went back in a few hours later and saw more. My mother tried to flush them down with a towel, but one of the little bastards crawled up the towel and stung her. (We then learned about the efficacy of meat tenderizer and added it to the shopping list.) When my father came over with the moving van the next day, he looked for the nest, which was in the ceiling above the bathroom. The first thing that he unpacked was his portable blowtorch, which took care of the nest in short order. Some years after that, my (now ex-) husband and I were living in the house when a large scorpion crawled into the dining room. My ex grabbed a pair of BBQ tongs and dropped the critter in a jar of industrial-grade rubbing alcohol. I kept it to serve as a Warning To Others. Then, about 10 years later, and in a completely different city, a couple of scorpions found their way into my parents’ pool, where they lay lifeless on the bottom. Suffice it to say that I am deathly afraid of scorpions. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/48 "2011-08-05T19:51:18Z")
> [@cards](#): > > Search fails me, but a few years ago an infrequent poster told a quite funny tale about a bat getting into her apartment. Anybody remember that or bookmark it? Search also fails me but we had a bat in our apartment once. We used to leave the door to the balcony open so that our cats could wander in and out at will. One day, we are watching TV and I hear this ‘sqeak, SqueaK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK’ noise from out there. Well, we lived on the 17th floor and there was pidgeon netting so no birds could get in so I just assumed that SOMETHING TERRIBLE had happened to my kitty. I pick her up and see that there is something in her mouth. So, I open her mouth and out flies a bat. I swear I have never moved so fast in my life. Kept hold of the cat in my arm (who was desperately trying to get away to grab the bat, grabbed cat #2 in the other arm and yelled over my shoulder ‘there’s a bat in the apartment!’ to my husband as I ran into the bedroom, closed and locked the door. After a few seconds, my husband realizes what is going on and asks for help catching it. No way, no how and I am not coming out until it is gone. It took him about half an hour to catch it and another 20 minutes to release it. I spent the whole time cowering on the bed with a death grip on the kitties. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/49 "2011-08-05T23:59:51Z")
i’m a bit curious on what you did with the bedding and bed. i’m reckoning on a bonfire to serve as a lesson to others that may wish to crash uninvited. ---
**Author:** ![locamochagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/73ab20/32.png) [@locamochagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/locamochagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/50 "2011-08-06T00:41:49Z")
Yikes. I saw a possum once. I was NOT expecting it. I had never seen one before and I stumbled upon it around 9 or 10 in the evening in my backyard. I was so startled I started screaming. My dad thought I was getting murdered and when I told him I saw a “giant, ugly rodent thing!” he laughed and said it wasn’t a big deal. So - I sympathize with the trauma of having a possum IN YOUR HOUSE. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/51 "2011-08-06T14:46:01Z")
> [@thirdwarning](#): > > When my older half-brothers were young they had some ‘unusual’ pets, including a 'possum. Their mother woke up one night to find it sitting on her. She very carefully poked my dad and told him, “Clarence, there’s a muskrat on my chest.” I’m not sure how he got it off of her and out of the room, but he thought it was pretty funny when he told us about it years later. I think she probably would have disagreed. This had me laughing so hard I cried, and so loud I scared the cats. ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/52 "2011-08-06T14:57:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Oldest (12) thinks this is hilarious… > > How did it get in??? We cannot find an answer. It couldn’t even have come in through the door! Am I the only one seeing a potential explanation here? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/53 "2011-09-12T02:41:04Z")
Oppossums are cute! I wouldn’t try to catch one barehanded or anything, but I would probably be more apt to slowly try to retrieve my camera than I would be to freak out. ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/54 "2011-09-12T03:27:45Z")
[![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/6190/6139184670_bde546347e_b.jpg "possum") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/64670843@N05/6139184670/) I see little ones like this periodically in my yard. I’ve never seen a big one. I was able to get within a foot of this one to take the picture. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/55 "2011-09-12T05:13:34Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > Late one night after my husband had gone to bed, my three dogs were barking at something in the yard. I went out to investigate, and found they had killed a small 'possum. I thought about what to do - after all, I didn’t want them to eat it! So I decided to throw it over the neighbor’s fence - the one side that didn’t have any pets. 😉 > > I picked it up by the tail, and it moved!!! :eek: It was “playing possum”! I chunked him over the fence, and went in and washed my hands a bunch of times. :eek: That reminds me of the last time a surprise make me shriek like the little girl I used to be… I got up to use the bathroom one night, and noticed one of the cats batting around a toy mouse in the dark. Eventually it got flung at my feet. Thinking nothing of it, I reached down and picked it up by the tail to toss it to him…only to realize it wasn’t a toy mouse at all. It was a real mouse, really dead, not playing possum. Eww. ---
**Author:** ![rebeccasrevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ec8ea/32.png) [@rebeccasrevenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rebeccasrevenge)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/56 "2011-09-12T07:26:54Z")
Everyone says possum the O just seems to be extraneous.Granny Clampett baked possum pie not opossum pie. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172/57 "2011-09-12T13:58:28Z")
> [@enigmatic](#): > > Am I the only one seeing a potential explanation here? Ha ha, you are right! It was the door. The only reason I was so sure it wasn’t the door is that I had been so paranoid about keeping the door shut because the cat had been peeing on our bed. We have since figured out the possum came in around the drain for our washing machine. We keep the cat’s food in the laundry room and there had been a sudden mysterious uptick in his cat food consumption. This means the possum went up two flights of stairs and through the door that I must have left open. No more possums (or cat food stealing) since securing the washing machine drain. [Possum at the bottom of trash can](http://oi51.tinypic.com/160ao1x.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-possum-in-my-bed/591172.md?page=2)