I think they are cute. When driving I have opossum radar. I can be driving really fast on one of the dark twisting roads around here and suddenly for no reason I will slow down and then see an opossum trudge across the road.
I used to volunteer at a wild animal rescue place (in the US, so these are NA ‘possums). Them things is evil. They might conceivably be cute for the first few days of life, before they get that startle-hiss-baring-teeth reflex goin’ on. Their fur is always skanky-looking, no matter how healthy the critter is. And I am here to tell you that NOTHING poops nastier poop than possums. (shudder)
Well, I feel sort of goofy. We don’t normally have polls in MPSIMS — it was brought to my attention by a Vigilant Poster™ that polls properly live only in IMHO, Cafe Society, or if you wish to give 'em a test run, ATMB. Yet here I up and move this thread to MPSIMS. :smack:
In my defense though, Cute Animal Thread = MPSIMS.
However, in the interests of harmony and setting things right with the universe, we shall now lob this furry critter back to IMHO.
Ellen Cherry
Moving Moderator
The most common defense mechanism for most animals is to bare teeth, growl or hiss, and generally try to look as offensive and badass ugly as possible. Why are some posters surprised at this? Possums are just like other critters when their lives are on the line.
Hey, back me up in a corner and see how adorably cute I get. :eek:
Not only are they ugly but they stink and their teeth are razor-sharp.
I’m not gonna kill one just because it’s ugly. But I’m not inviting one in for supper, either.
A veritable judgment if Solomon.
I’ve got lots of them in my neighborhood, and occasionally see them in my yard. (There’s frequently one living under my tool shed.)
They’re not as cute as armadillos (my favorites), but I like them, and I have occasionally fed and named them.
I have no such fondness for raccoons.
On a tour a few weeks back the NZ tour guide said that she used to deliberately skittle any possumsshe saw on the road – this being NZ were the little b’stards are TB spreading, native bush eating vermin – but said that she’d had to stop because the foreign tourists kept freaking out.
Look, I feel sorry for the little bastards.
I found one in my trash can. He played dead. I laid it over in it’s side so he could get out, and backed off across the street, a respectful distance from those above referenced bazillion teeth.
He turned his mangy little head to look at me.
“You know I’m dead, right?”
G-d didn’t give them any sense. They are so ugly that they are cute.
And they have a bazillion teeth.
Poor little guys.
Amazing. Few tiny baby animals are ugly, but possums manage it.
No way. Racoons are way more of a menace. Those bandit-faced fuckers have paws like hands, and are petty damn smart - bad news for keeping them out of, well, anything. 
Plus, they are bigger and meaner.
I’m sure there’s a (possum) mother somewhere, that just looooves that face.
ugh!
I like animals; but NZ possums ARE ugly!
I have a Brushtail Possum living in my wine cellar (well, during the day - he goes out at night of course). We feed him an apple or a carrot every day. I got too close early on and he bit my finger (ungrateful sod) - he has really sharp teeth. Just in the last couple of weeks we can pat him if we are very careful.
Despite the bleeding finger incident, I still vote cute.
Edited to add: I should have noted that I am in Australia. I wouldn’t be feeding one of the pests if I were in New Zealand.
You, Sir, insult my opinions of infant marsupials.
My Seconds shall call upon you in the morning!
The American opossum looks like what you’d get if you crossed a raccoon with a meerkat, yet manages to be as ugly as those two animals are cute. It’s like an example of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon.
The American possum is one ugly critter, and evil incarnate. It’s a primitive throwback, a survivor of a time when dinosaurs walked the earth, and as such has only a set of instincts and as little intelligence as necessary to survive to breeding age. It’s not a cunning, conniving, lock-picking evil like the raccoon, or a lazy, take-no-guff-from-anyone evil like the skunk, both of which evolved eons later than the possum.
When I was a kid we had dachshunds who cornered a possum behind the garage. It put up a a fight that went on from 3am until almost noon, and when they finally got hold of the possum it let out a scream that terrified me. After they killed it I looked at the teeth: every one of them was a sharp spike. How could a creature like that be anything but evil?
Seriously, I don’t think any of those creatures are evil, but they’re the most common nuisance animals I’ve dealt with, along with mice, coyotes and armadillos.
I call the big one “Bitey.”
The American variety are ugly as sin.
Cute right up to the point they panic and try to climb the nearest tree, which happens to be you. Once on top of your head they cling on for grim death with some rather sharp claws. Yeah, cute.
But possum skins are awesome - really soft, and the Merino/possum mix wool is so good for gloves, socks, and hats.
But roadkill possum can put you off cycling in NZ.
Si
Now come on, how is this not cute?
What’s that weird noise? Is that some kind of opossum purr? Sounds digital.