Came face-to-face with a possum in my garage; now I got questions

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I went out to put our barn cat up for the night. Did a little check of area, and noticed her food and water dishes were knocked over and food was everywhere. She came waltzing up and began eating the kibble off the floor while I tried to figure out why it was all such a mess.

I glance over toward the corner by the door, and see behind her litter box, not three feet from where she’s gleefully eating, a danged old possum looking right at me.

I lure the cat out of the garage and, not having a clue what to do, grab a nearby aluminum bat and start banging it on things to see if that will scare it off. Nope, it just curls into the corner further. So I go get the hose and blast the hell out of it and it runs off.

Now, this cat is a vicious killing machine when it comes to mice and moles and rabbits and even birds, but she’s only about six pounds. I’m not putting my money on her to survive a fight with a full-grown possum. I’m glad I didn’t just lock her in like I do sometimes.

**The only thing I can’t figure out is how my cat didn’t know this thing was in her space, sitting there, less than three feet from her food? **

She hunts moles by watching the turf move. She hunts rabbits and mice like a boss. She has the eyes, ears and nose of a finely-tuned murdering machine. But she didn’t know there was a damn possum over her shoulder? Or did she, but knew she probably couldn’t take this thing down? I would think if there was an animal in her proximity that she couldn’t vanquish and destroy, she’d just get the hell out of there.

Anyone with a better grasp on animal relations have any thoughts on this? And could a cat take down a possum? (For reference, the other week, my cat came prancing across our yard with a full-grown rabbit’s head in her mouth, body was already consumed, and proceeded to eat the head right in front of us. Would a possum put up a bigger fight than a rabbit?)

2

Is it possible she didn’t see it? My dogs go chasing animals around in the backyard (like they’re going to catch a bird?). In fact, after the summer where they manged to get skunked 5 times I now make a point of going out in the yard first and doing a once over with a flashlight to make sure anything that’s out there scatters. However, opossums are hard to see and if you hit them with a flashlight they really do play dead. They just sort of fall over and lay there.

A few years ago I had one hanging around my house, one or two times it was in my backyard and I didn’t notice it until the dogs were already outside and they didn’t seem to see it either. I just, like you, got them back in as quickly as I could, turned off all the outside lights, and let them back out later.

For future reference, it did end up in my garage at one point. It took me a day or two to get it out. I ended up putting a small (under sink type) garbage can out there with a board going up to it and some dog food going up to the board. The opossum walked up the board and fell in the garbage can about 10 minutes later. Then I used push broom to push the garbage can down my driveway, out to the street and knocked it over and the opossum took off. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and probably safer than putting it in attack mode.

3

My cat doesn’t tangle with possums or raccoons and will just let them eat the food. If I shoo them away with a broom she’ll get brave and chase when their back is turned.

4

Cats and opossums have peacefully coexisted in our barn. The opossums gorge on cat food, so I eventually set a Havahart trap and relocate the opossums.

5

In my (extensive) experience, cats are indifferent to possums. A strange cat or one who has been “voted off the island” shows up? There’s likely to be a fight happening. A possum of any size shows up? It gets a glance, then gets ignored.

I have inside/outside cats–and possums always manage to come in with them, more times than I care to count. When I catch one (by the tail–they are slow-moving and not very bright) I would occasionally try to annoy them into “playing possum”, but they never did it within the limits of how much effort I was willing to put into being a jerk to them.

So the one exception to my “cats ignore possums” experience came once when a cat had a nest of young kittens underneath a piece of furniture in my living room. An adolescent possum wandered into the room and happened to walk past the spot. The possum was minding his own business, completely unaware of the kittens. But the mother cat wasn’t willing to give the benefit of the doubt. She moved so fast that I literally could not see her coming. One moment, I was watching a possum walk across my living room–the next moment, there was a slightly larger cat with all 4 legs wrapped around the possum. And the possum was instantly out cold completely possumatonic. I untangled the cat from the possum, took the possum outside, and waited to see what happened. After a minute or two, the possum recovered itself and ambled off, probably wondering what the hell just happened.

6

Growing up, we had a couple of black Labrador retrievers. One night, one of them got loose and ran off into the woods, as was their custom. A few minutes later, she came back with what appeared to be a dead opossum in her mouth, which she then proudly dropped at my feet. I brought the dog back inside and grabbed a shovel from the garage to dispose of the opossum.

When I came back, it was gone.

7

Don’t pick a fight with one! Opossums have 50 teeth, more than any other North American land mammal.

8

I once saw baby possums in with a crowd of kittens around the food bowl. Apparently they believed the possums to be very ugly siblings.

9

See the photo in my post above.

10

My barn cat doesn’t seem to mind the possum that I’ve seen in my hay stall, which is where he’s fed. (barn cat, not possum) I try to feed the barn cat early so he finishes all his food before it draws other critters.

StG

11

Perhaps they’re stepping out together. My advice is prepare to invite the Vicar round for tea and talk wedding arrangements.

12

ObSimpsons:

13

Photos by yours truly.

14

Heh. My gf found a stuporous opossum in our yard a few winters ago during extremely cold, nasty weather. We warmed it up, gave some sugar water orally by dropper, and waited. When I went in to check on it, I could have gotten that exact picture. Ornery cuss!

15

Those photos were taken in macro setting with the camera practically jammed down his throat.

(BTW, possums aren’t especially cold-tolerant and get frostbite in their ears and tails when it gets too bad. Limits their range in the US.)

16

Surely opposums compete for the same niche as the similar-sized but smarter and more aggressive raccoons. Their continued existence is puzzling to me.

17

Possums are OK, they are scavengers and like vultures, help with the clean-up.

To bad Zeus, our dog, considers them to be not a welcome guest in his yard as he will grab then and kills then with one shake. Does the same to raccoons if he can catch them before they climb a tree. He then loudly calls me to come get them out of the tree so he can dispatch them. Trees are close together and they escape like a squirrel does.

Oh, Zeus is a 110# St. Bernard with some Pyrenees in the mix.

18

While I see possums here often, I’ve only seen raccoons on my porch 2 or 3 times. The possums and I have grown to grudgingly accept each other, giving each other a nod in passing. Raccoons, I’m far less pleased with. Besides the rabies risk, they seem to be pretty viscous.

19

Your cat knows all about that possum. He’s probably been there for weeks. You probably have raccoons, too. You should set up a webcam.

In cat fashion, the cat knows she can’t take the possum (she really can’t), which is why she’s pretending not to notice him eating her food. Gotta maintain that cool. (“I wish I could be so carefree and wild …”)

I love possums and all the furry animals. They do carry diseases, however. Make sure Barn Cat is up to date on her shots.

20

They’re both omnivores, and thrive cheerfully on human trash, of which there is never any shortage. And outdoor cat food, of course.