When I came home from dinner tonight there was a cute little kitty cat rummaging through the garbage. So I said, “Oh, Hi kitty, kitty, kitty…” as I bent to try to pet the little fuzz pot.
“Hey! That’s no kitty!!!” my brain said as the monster waddled down the driveway to hide under a car. It had a LONG skinny tail like a rat. And it had a fuzzy body…sort of long and round. And a weird waddling gait…like a skunk.
Now, I grew up on a farm. I can recognize vermin at 60 paces. I know a raccoon when I see one. This monster was the color of a coon, but had the WRONG tail. It was the shape of a possum, but just the WRONG color…much darker. It was too big for a rat. Jeez, I HOPE it was too big to be a rat.
Unless there’s a rat the size of a cat hiding under a car in my driveway.
Does anyone know what kind of monsters live on the East coast? There must be some kind of critters here that they just don’t grow in the midwest. Should I be scared?
I have seen rats the size of cats here in Boston but if you’re in a more suburban area that seems less likely and there’s a wider range of ‘wildlife’ possibilities. No ideas on what it could be otherwise, so I hope someone more reassuring comes along. In the meantime, just be glad you didn’t manage to actually pet/touch it!
You don’t need to be scared but you probably shouldn’t try to pet the “kitty”.
I’d like to try to help you identify it but I can’t find my Field Guide to North American Mammals and my computer will only let me open one IE window right now so I can’t check online and my head hurts and I have a lot of memory problems with my brain when my head hurts. Just some guesses off the top of my head; Nutria (a big rat) or a marten (sort of raccoon/ferret like). I am not sure of their ranges though.
It totall looked like the Nutria and that other one…the…err…Muskrat. Dont’ worry, as long as I know it’s a monster, I won’t try to pet it. What is it doing in my driveway? What does it eat?
Maybe I should feed the poor thing. I mean, eating out of the garbage is no way to live.
Ah, but there are. I once spent the better part of a golf outing more interested in watching the muskrats paddle around in the stream than playing golf.
According to this, possums can be dark in color. And that’s the most obvious critter for near Boston. I’m pretty sure nutria haven’t made it this far North.
The only real danger (and it’s remote) would be if it were rabid.
I was pretty sure we had nutria and muskrats all the way up here. Definately muskrats anyway, as I’ve seen 'em. They’re kinda cute. Heck, I think any rodent is cute!
(zoogirl, owner of one Norway Rat and two Norway/Domestic crosses, plus a pile of pet stock rats and mice. Oh, and chinchillas, a rabbit, a guinea pig and a chipmunk.)
Yeah, I have nothing against the little fur balls. He was a perfectly cute monster. But I’m glad I didn’t get any closer…I have no plans to pet wild monsters!
My first guess was that it had to be a 'possum. I’m familiar with them and it was just SHAPED like a possum. But the ones I’ve seen have been nearly white.
For the record, I live in a VERY urban area…just outside of Boston proper. I’m surprised to see critters around here!
The waddling gait you describe sure sounds like a 'possum. Plus 'possums are regular garbage can foragers. I’ve never seen a muskrat wander far from a body of water, and certainly never seen or heard of one foraging through garbage.
A co-worker once spotted a strange animal outside our place of business. Although it looked a lot like a mink, which would have been strange enough in this locale, he decided it must be a Chupacabra. Perhaps you saw a Chupacabra, too? In which case it’s a good thing that you are not actually a goat and did not try to pet it.
It’s a 'possum. They’re butt ugly. But there are a lot of 'em around. My dad has one that he feeds regularly, along with the rabbits and birds. I get more raccoons, but I see the occasional 'possum in my semi-rural Illinois area.
