I was out driving tonight, looking for people to hang out with because it’s Friday night and I’m bored as hell. So I was just coming around a big curve on Shattalon St. (I’m sure that means a lot to you) and there was this… thing in the road. As I got closer, I realized it was a possum, sitting up like a dog, right on the double yellow line, with it’s mouth wide open, motionless, looking to one side of the road, and I think it had blood on it’s head. My passing car didn’t seem to phase it a bit. As I passed, there was an SUV going the other way, and it completely stopped for the thing. I watched them in the mirror for a while, and I could tell the SUV driver was just as creeped as I was. I’ve just been thinking about it all night, and had to get it off my chest. It’s just so… creepy.
That sounds pretty darn freaky to me…I’ve heard tales told in the Ozarks of jumping armadillos, though. That’s freakier IMHO - apparently when they get frightened, armadillos jump. Sometimes the animals hit the oilpan and expire, while others actually have good reaction times and scare the sh** out of the drivers and land on the hood.
Wow! That must have really shaken you pretty bad. I’ve so rarely seen a possum alive, they usually don’t make it across the street. Though, once in our neighborhood, I was out driving late at night. Coming home, I saw something walking on the side of the road, (he was walking correctly too, towards oncoming traffic!) and I thought it was a cat. It turned out to be a pretty smart possum! Weird little critters.
I think possums should have a little bowtie and a cigar, and cuss under their breath.
(Doddamn cars, shinning lights all the time. Killing friends grumble grumble bastards… grumble, SUV assholes…)
I can attest from personal experience that opossums are very hard to kill - my dad once had to beat one to death with a crowbar (it was in the trunk of his car) and even though near the end its head was extremely malformed it was still doing its best to win the fight.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing had been clipped by a car (you say there was blood on its head) and was just standing there stunned and generally pissed at the world.
By the way, is possum an officially recognized spelling?
I refuse to say ‘opossum’ or ‘Porsché’.
Once when I was pulling out of a family friend’s driveway, I noticed the form of some animal standing in front of their garage. I assumed it was a dog because the thing looked large, about two feet in length. I turned on my headlights and it was a 'possum! I had no clue that they could get that big.
The worst 'possum story I’ve heard was from a friend who accidentally hit one with his car. He stopped immediately and looked down through his window. There were tiny pink things writhing around the marsupial. He took a closer look and realized that the tiny things were baby 'possums. He felt guilty for a long time.
How in the world did the thing get in your dad’s car in the first place?? Looking for a weapon?
Probably not, but I * still spell it that way! *
Jesus christ! WHat the hell kind of person is your father!?!?!? Why couldn’t he just open the trunk of the car and poke it with a broom or something til it ran away? And don’t tell me that isn’t possible, becaue I can guarantee you that if there was a possum in my car, it would get out alive.
I’m sick to my stomach reading that and thinking there are those kinds of people in the world.
Possums are part of a vast conspiracy, along with Dingoes and Wombats. Kill either of those species on site (or their partners, pepperoni pizza… it’s best to use stomach acids to kill those, though).
A possum can be quite dangerous, especially large ones, and ESPECIALLY if they’re surprised and cornered… and especially if they have a gun. In that case, call the New York police department.
OpalCat said
Thank you, OpalCat for your knee-jerk characterization of my dad. If you must know he is a pretty good man. So piss off.
He had to kill it (or felt he had to) because it had bitten him and he wanted it tested for rabies. He sure as hell was not going to try to cage it again.
He probably didn’t respond as humanely as possible but he was in a mild panic, not to mention young (19 at the time). Opossums are frightening, an angry opossum will make you wet your pants.
I had to personally shoot several opossums when I was young because our dog had them cornered somewhere and I was not going to get close enough to pull the dog off; in a fight the opossum would have won and the dog would likely die.
Anti Pro said
A guy had brought a trapped opossum to a class for some demonstration. He planned to kill it when he got home so my dad said he would take it home and release it in a field somewhere. The cage came open during the drive and when he opened the trunk he was surprised (and bitten) buy a very pissed off opossum.
I wonder if they are hit so much because they play dead when they see a car coming. I found one in the trash can once, turned the can on the side and waited for him to leave. They have impressive teeth. He played dead. I walked away and observed from a distance. He would occasionally peek at me as if to say “I’m supposed to look dead…how am I doing?”
A baby possum we found in the yard was cute. The cat was convinced that we were harbouring a rat, so we gave him to an animal relocator who will release him somewhere safe when he is old enough.
Felt he had to. (But no way for him to know at the time, of course.)
One of my wife’s co-workers, awhile back, had a possum acting wierd in her yard, and it got into a tussle with the dog. She (the co-worker) was worried about the possum having rabies, and called up animal control. They explained to her that possums’ central nervous systems (or something along those lines) aren’t complex enough to make it possible for them to carry rabies. Who’d’a thunk it? :eek:
I think thats total bullshit… I now feel a need for research. Let ya know if I find anything.
I thought that sounded screwed up. They CAN get it! its just rare… heres my link and info.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/shultz/orabies.html
More about rabies in opossums:
The Virginia opossum is extremely resistant to rabies. Even a dense opossum population appears incapable of maintaining the disease, and the few cases observed represent “spillover” during periodic epizootic outbreaks of rabies in other species. During these outbreaks, opossums are exposed to rabies virus both from the bites of rabid skunks, foxes, and raccoon, and by eating the carcasses of these animals. All data indicate that in an area not experiencing a rabies epizootic there is no danger of contracting rabies from an opossum. In an area experiencing rabies outbreaks in skunks, foxes, or raccoons, there is still less chance of catching rabies from the opossum than from other species. In the United States, all rabies cases are reported to the Centers for Disease Control, who compile a yearly summary of rabies incidents (Krebs et al., 1993). In 1992 there were only four opossums out of 8,645 reports of rabid animals of all species in all 50 states. Unfortunately, the total number tested of each species is never reported, so one cannot compare rate of infection across species.
While I realize this isn’t quite a ‘citation’, I do have a pretty strong background in the field (a degree in molecular biology and, later, medical school) and I can assure you that the “complexity” of the nervous system has little to do with the ability to carry rabies. for one thing, the rabies virus multiplies in salivary glands, as well as in the CNS. It is the virus from those glands that infects the victim. Check Field’s Virology or the Merck Manual (which, I believe, is on-line nowadays)
Mice and other small mammals are quite capable of carrying rabies. They have been used in research, but when they get bitten by an infected animal in the wild, they rarely survive long enough to infect anyone. That’s why medium sized mammals (cats, dog, raccoons, skunks, foxes) are the usual carriers.
Bats can also carry rabies, but that’s probably due to being infected in the Bat Cave (cue theme music). Interestingly, there are a couple of cases of rabies through inhalation in humans exploring bat caves. (and, sadly [1], rabies has been transmitted by licking as well)
Based on my personal experience with a local outbreak of rabid raccoons, I thought the possum that spooked Babar714 could well have been rabid.
BTW, I’ve seen a rabid raccoon take 2 .38 shots to the body (confirmed by autopsy after a third shot took it down) and barely acknowledge it. If I ever meet Obfuscatrist’s dad, I’ll buy him a beer in exchange for the tale of the crowbar.
Sorry, Opalcat. Hope that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.
Oops. I guess B_Line12 posted while I was composing my response. (I was interrupted)
Hat’s off, B! I’ve been surprised there is so little research and citations in MPSIMS, given the fact that you guys are a pretty bright bunch and admire Cecil’s approach.
Maybe I just ‘tuned in’ at the wrong times.
I wish I’d been around during the psychic orgasm thread. I’d just shipped a bunch of papers for my dad (a professor of anatomy) to use in his summer session – about the unsuspected role of the vagus nerve in orgasm, and orgasms in people with spinal cord transections who were numb from the shoulder/upper chest down. They also shed light on possible mechanisms of clomiprimine and other ‘pharmacologic orgasms’.
Oops, didn’t mean to hijack
Dang, now I’ve lost my guts to post the wry footnote I’d intended (above) on why anything that discourages licking is a sad event.
KP, MPSIMS is sillier, with less emphasis on accuracy. If people really want to KNOW something, they go ask it in General Questions. The citations are more likely there.
–John
Yup! pretty much what Yue Han said. Unless someone gets a stick up there ass or wants to prove a point themselves. Trust me, you wont find ANYONE just taking someones word for something they are calling a fact.
KP - John has it absolutely right. GQ and GD are the serious ‘let’s see a cite on that’ territory; MPSIMS is for hangin’ out, being neighborly, shooting the shit, sharing personal triumphs and crises…you get the idea.
Looks like my indirect source had it no better than about half right. Thanks, KP and B_Line, for the education!