Sounds like a ‘possum to me. They’re scavengers and will get in your garbage cans. Problem is, a lot of times they get in and can’t get out. Nuttin’ like seeing your garbage moving around and discovering a trapped 'possum. They are mean critters! I suggest a tight cover over the can(s). If the critter can’t get into your garbabe it’ll go find another source of food, trust me. I would advise that. Especially if it happens to be a mama 'possum cause that’ll mean 'possumettes foraging in the near future. :eek:
Sounds like a possum to me, too. My parents occasionally have them in their back yard, they come up and eat my cat’s food. Teeth like a mouthful of knives… I wouldn’t put my hand anywhere near one, but it’s neat to get up close and watch them eat through the glass door.
My dad shoots them in the arse with a bb gun. It doesn’t hurt them or even draw blood, but it’s pretty decent about getting them to go elsewhere.
The “weird waddling gait” and the fact you could get so close to it would leave me very worried about rabies, especially if it was still daylight when this occured.
Wait one minnit here, back up to the “rats the size of cats here in Boston” - :eek:
- featherlou, living in rat-free Alberta
(We have muskrats all over Canada - you can see their little heads swimming around in any lake, pond, or dug-out. You never see them out of water, though.)
As big as a cat? Absolutely.
Nah. 'Possums waddle, and they move and react slowly (so it’s easy to get close to them).
I’m inclined to think muskrat, as they’re pretty widespread throughout the Northeast, mostly in rural areas. Cute in the water, rat-looking on land.
It’s within possum range, though they’re uncommon in New England TTBOMK. But the coloration is all wrong. Other suggestions don’t fit because of the ratlike tail.
And a muskrat in a place you wouldn’t expect to see one can look weirdly like a wide variety of other strange beasties. Maybe it’s looking for the Esplanade, arriving early to get a good seat for the next Pops concert next summer? 
Always saw near-white possum out on Long Island, but since moving to south Florida, I’m seeing them very dark, like they’ve rolled in soot. They still have the light-colored undercoat, but the guard hairs are almost black.
A few years back, my wife (who had never seen a possum) was trapping feral cats for a neuter & release program. She called me mid-morning, hysterical, saying she had caught a rat that had to weigh at least twenty pounds and was about two feet long. Boy, did I laugh loudly and cruelly when I saw what she had trapped! It wouldn’t have been so bad, but ten minutes after we released it, it was back in the trap!
I think your sighting was a possum. Whenever I have surprised a muskrat, it has been an unpleasant, scary experience–I’ve seen them kind of scowl, for want of a better word, and show theiry teeth, and hiss in a way. And they don’t waddle, in my experience.
Just last summer I came home from work with the kids and walked past my garbage can. I happened to look into it, and at the bottom, apparently dead, was a big grey possum. At first glance, I thought it was a rat. I’d recently been to Chicago and had seen a few very seriously big rats. But, it was a possum, and a good sized one too; it covered the entire bottom of the garbage can, all curled up and snoozing. I told the kids to look, and “shhhhh be quiet.” After we all peeked in and got a good look we tipped over the can. Boy did mr. possum move. Yes it was a waddle, but it was a pretty rapid waddle at that.
I think it was probably scouting for eats, fell into the can and couldn’t get out, and then decided to just enjoy the warmth and relative safety of the situation and take a snooze.
It’s what I would have done.
TTBOMK? pray tell the meaning of this randomly strung together bunch of letters.
Was that you the local police found asleep in a dumpster last Thursday? 
Our possums are nearly black and hit 30# or so. We kept one around to eat slugs.
It took him/her 2 years to clear out the yard of slugs, but he did a great job. We fed him cat food after that, and he was soooo shiny. Not tame, but accustomed to people.
Another vote for possum here. I’ve only ever seen them with the darker coloration here in Central Flawduh. As I said in the MMP, once in a while they blunder into my backyard and lather up the dogs but no one’s been injured yet. Mr. Anachi once picked one up by the tail when he was consuming tequila (Mr. Anachi, not the possum) and lived to tell about it.
Oh, an about them Boston rats. I verify they are the size of cats. I once lived on Beacon Street on a block with an alleyway behind the buildings. My cousin and I were taking a shortcut through the alley after dark when we saw…cats…but way WAY too many cats! :eek: I think we broke a sprinting record running to the back door of our building.
There are tons of muskrat in Illinois. If you live on water, you can see them all them time. As a child, I lived on a small chanel that lead into a fresh water lake. We always had a Mike or Michelle Muskrat swimming around back there. We liked to pretend they were always the same married couple, but I’m sure there were various Mikes and Michelles through the years. They’re fun to watch, and they don’t eat fruit trees like the beavers do.
We used to get possums of all shades when we would feed the dogs on the back porch in the summer. (normally they ate inside, but in the summer, they liked to eat outside) If we failed to pick up the food, it would be finished off, no problem, by hordes of possum.
(this is in Kansas City, btw)
I’ve seen them too! Mostly, we just get regular rats, but sometimes I see huge ones lurking around dumpsters.
Come to think of it, I think I’ve only seen 1 or 2 stray cats in all my time in Boston. The rat population must be keeping them down…
Okay, well my boss, obviously also a local, says it was almost undoubtedly a possum. She tends to know the wildlife around these parts, so I trust her judgement.
But I’d still really rather think of it as a Chupacabra. So maybe I’ll just go with that. It’s much more exciting.
It was after dark when I got home, so the fella wasn’t waddling around in daylight. However, it did surprise me that he didn’t take off until I approached. I had just pulled my car up to the curb right along next to him! I would think that would have scared him off. I’m definitely keeping ChoosyPup far away from his goat-sucking tentacles.
An old neighbor used to feed cats outside, so after dark you could go out on the porch and scare away any number of coons and skunks and stuff. I never believed the Chupacabra reports until now!
Must be alien mutant possum if they can eat through a glass door! :eek:
To The Best Of My Knowledge
IANNAMUO½AA (I am not normally a maker up of half assed acronyms), but I was under the impression that this was one of the “standard user set,” if a bit less common than some.
I’ll take groundhog for 200 Alex.
Awww…but a groundhog is so BORING. Plus, I think I’d recognize one.
Should I call the Globe and tell them about the local Chupacabra sighting?