I can unequivocally state that walking down the street not watching where you are going and stepping into a disembowelled possum is one of the worst experiences in your life (and it is not improved when it makes you vomit).
Can you explain this? I’ve never heard the Virginia Opossum is endangered anywhere, and I can’t find any indication online that it is.
Could your cousin have been mistaken, or pulling your leg?
I’d continue with this, but I’d have to dig up the stuff I did on Thunderian languages. 
(Yes, I’ve created at least a little for about five or six Thunderian languages and a bit for Plundarrian. The only one I can remember anything about is Tynthna, which none of the Thundercats spoke, but one of my original characters does. Why yes, I am a giant geek.)
Considering most of the show took place on Third Earth, and that they conversed with Third Earthers, it’s more likely that the dialogue was translated from a Terran language, probably a derivative of Arabic, considering the probable location (we see the Pyramids in a flyover in ‘The Unholy Alliance’) or English, considering how it’s attempting to take over the world. So in fact the Thundercat names are mostly likely transliterations from a Thunderian language to whatever language it was. In any case, certain spellings have become traditional.
I really need to work on my Thundercats stuff some again.
And obviously Cheetara is a spotted Thunderian and Panthro is blue which makes them both minorities. The majority is gold skin, red/brown hair, and red eyes (see: Lion-o, Pumyra, Jaga, Kit & Kat, Claudus, Torr, Leah, etc)
Please nag me and I’ll pull out my Thunderian stuff and stick in on my Livejournal.
As mentioned, the vast majority of opossum species aren’t endangered (the damned things will produce 100 offspring in a year in ideal situations [every seen the babies? Tinier than baby gerbils. You can fit several of them in a teaspoon {but I’d rince it before stirring my coffee}]). Not sure what kind this was, but there are some on the endangered species list. (A quick googling shows that most seem to be South American, but perhaps these were in the country illegally.)
So you’re telling me your cousin got in trouble for shooting an endangered South American opossum in North America?
I would think a similar situation arising again would be so vanishingly unlikely as to not be worth worrying about.
That must be a pretty impressive gun, in terms of both range and accuracy.
I feel the same way. I’m amazed at people who move to the country then complain that there’s too much country there. They didn’t expect to find deer in their expensive, landscaped garden?
I put bird-type food and table scraps out on the stone wall in front of my window year-round. I see birds, squirrels, chipmunks, foxes, rabbits, skunks, raccoons, possums, groundhogs and of course, deer, most drawn to the food. Unlike some people, who try to prevent squirrels or deer from eating, I like 'em all. None of them bother me and I enjoy watching them.
I draw the line at mice in the house, however, and I trap them (and put the carcasses in the bird feeder for crows and foxes!). I guess we all have our limits. I would prefer to keep mice out rather than trap them, but they are too clever for me and I can’t find the holes they use.
My Grandmother cooked one once. This was 40 years ago. I remember the meat as being oily, kind of like pot roast, which could have just been the way she cooked it. Certainly not bad tasting and it didn’t taste like chicken.
And for the record - 'possoms are the cutest animal ever.
But the OP isn’t talking about being in the country. She lives in Indianapolis. I live in Baton Rouge. This isn’t the country. We’re talking about possums in at what are at least suburban environments, in people’s backyards.