# Opossums: Cute, or ugly?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 3, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911 "2017-02-03T15:32:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/1 "2017-02-03T15:32:57Z")
Many people think opossums are hideously ugly. My wife is one of them. I tell her opossums are _cute!_ She says, ‘You think _everything_ is cute! Like those enormous raccoons!’ (She thinks the raccoons up here are entirely too big, compared to the ones she’s used to.)
Personally, I think opossums _are_ cute – not to mention useful. They can eat 5,000 ticks in a season. (Not that we have a tick problem here.) They’re like tick magnets, and they’re fastidious in their grooming, so they eat a lot of them. And they’re very, very unlikely to carry rabies. The sharp teeth and hissing? Mostly a bluff.
So how about it? Do you think opossums are cute, or ugly? ‘So ugly they’re cute’ counts as ‘cute’.
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### Author:  [@somepumpkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/somepumpkin)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/2 "2017-02-03T16:00:40Z")
Front half, cute. Back half, ~ugly.
That gives them a net “cute” in the shunpiker household. Well, outside the household, actually.
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/3 "2017-02-03T16:02:10Z")
Deformed woods rats. IE - ugly.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/4 "2017-02-03T16:11:24Z")
[Hi!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9H9pvicOspY/hqdefault.jpg)
[Awwww…](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2014-11/20/21/campaign_images/webdr01/17-times-opossums-were-the-unsung-heroes-of-cute-2-16316-1416535891-4_dblbig.jpg)
🙂
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/5 "2017-02-03T16:18:07Z")
Big, ugly, mutant rats. ick.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/6 "2017-02-03T16:19:05Z")
Possums are one of the ugliest common animals out there. The only thing that outranks them in that regard are armadillos on the half-shell (southern road kill) and nutria. Even the healthy possums look like they have a fresh case of the mange. Why couldn’t we get one of the cool marsupials like a koala or wallaby like Australia has? Oh well, alligators are more fun to party with than salt water crocodiles any day so it isn’t a total loss.
[Cute](https://www.google.com/search?q=possum+pictures&espv=2&biw=880&bih=424&tbm=isch&imgil=4_i3SOVil4EnUM%253A%253BfeA-XMDsFMKWkM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fthe-toast.net%25252F2016%25252F05%25252F12%25252Feverything-whats-wrong-of-possums-its-all-of-them%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=4_i3SOVil4EnUM%253A%252CfeA-XMDsFMKWkM%252C_&usg=__MULBVcojTFrLGulDgH1iJAoU4wY%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjJheK0qvTRAhXEdSYKHeLlAMsQyjcIMw&ei=pK2UWMmjM8TrmQHiy4PYDA#imgrc=4_i3SOVil4EnUM:)
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/7 "2017-02-03T16:19:57Z")
ugly. But raccoons are cute.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/8 "2017-02-03T16:22:09Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#):
>
> [Cute](https://www.google.com/search?q=possum+pictures&espv=2&biw=880&bih=424&tbm=isch&imgil=4_i3SOVil4EnUM%253A%253BfeA-XMDsFMKWkM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fthe-toast.net%25252F2016%25252F05%25252F12%25252Feverything-whats-wrong-of-possums-its-all-of-them%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=4_i3SOVil4EnUM%253A%252CfeA-XMDsFMKWkM%252C_&usg=__MULBVcojTFrLGulDgH1iJAoU4wY%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjJheK0qvTRAhXEdSYKHeLlAMsQyjcIMw&ei=pK2UWMmjM8TrmQHiy4PYDA#imgrc=4_i3SOVil4EnUM:)
Aw, look how fluffy! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/9 "2017-02-03T16:24:24Z")
Ugly.
That doesn’t mean “not useful to nature” or “shouldn’t be allowed to live”, it just means “as visually appealing as a gangrenous rectum”.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/10 "2017-02-03T16:29:17Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> [Hi!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9H9pvicOspY/hqdefault.jpg)
> 🙂
Lots of teeth.
But cute.
Cute with lots of teeth.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/11 "2017-02-03T17:01:02Z")
Ugly. Almost aggressively ugly. They always look bristly and bitey. Even the babies are only marginally cute and that’s only because we’re genetically disposed to find baby features cute. I can appreciate the little ones hanging onto mom as “neat” but it doesn’t warm my heart.
As other said, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate them for their place in nature. We have one that hangs out in our backyard at night (not in the garbage cans either, just roams the yards) and he’s welcome to do his thing. He just looks ugly while doing it.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/12 "2017-02-03T17:06:37Z")
The babies are cute. The adults, not so much.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/13 "2017-02-03T17:09:39Z")
I voted “cute,” but I can’t resist this opportunity to link to the brilliant [Everything What’s Wrong Of Possums: It’s All Of Them](http://the-toast.net/2016/05/12/everything-whats-wrong-of-possums-its-all-of-them/).
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/14 "2017-02-03T17:16:55Z")
So far into ugly that they’re sort of cute.
But still, they’re ugly.
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/15 "2017-02-03T17:21:49Z")
Adorably cute. My dog jumped one in our yard, which promptly played dead. So I brought my dog inside and hunched over it for a while as it continued to play dead. Every minute or so, it would open and eye and look around, see me looking back, then blink it shut and give a fresh new ‘death spasm’ to try and fool me.
Totes adorbs!
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/16 "2017-02-03T17:29:41Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#):
>
> Every minute or so, it would open and eye and look around, see me looking back, then blink it shut and give a fresh new ‘death spasm’ to try and fool me.
I found one in the trash can, and laid the can over so he could get out. He would periodically raise his head and look at me. “How am I doing?”
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### Author:  [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/17 "2017-02-03T17:30:15Z")
Ugly and scary too.
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### Author:  [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/18 "2017-02-03T17:32:47Z")
So freakin’ cute!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/19 "2017-02-03T17:34:31Z")
The two are not mutually exclusive.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opossums-cute-or-ugly/778911/20 "2017-02-03T17:37:01Z")
A big marsupial rat. I voted ugly.
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