Small opossum....or HUUUGE rat?? ACK!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Either way, AAAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGG!!!

Let me set the stage. I live in a turn-of-the-last-century townhouse on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. It’s a basement apartment, the kind that used to be called a “railroad apartment” because the rooms start in the front and proceed in a straight line to the back, with just a narrow hallway running down one side. In my house, the progression happens to be living/dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom #1, and bedroom #2 all the way in the back.

Last night, I was sleeping soundly in bedroom #2. Because the apartment is essentially below ground level, all the windows are about 5 feet off the ground, and my bed is situated under the back window. My son was in with me, as he had been having nightmares and needed some consolation. Man, he was safer where he had been, in his own bedroom-with-no-outside-access!!!

OK, here’s where it gets horrible. At about 1 in the morning, I wake up a bit because the dogs in the neighborhood are barking furiously. I am just barely concious. Suddenly…

THUNK!!!

Something bangs in to the window over my head.

I pull the curtain aside and what do I see? A HUGE, TOOTHY CREATURE with a bald tail, squished between the iron bars on the window and the actual glass. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I rush my very confused son back to his own bed and have some hare-brained notion that I ought to call animal control, that this THING could break the glass and end up in my bed, that I wonder if pepper spray works on marsupials…and when I got back to the bedroom, it was gone.

Now I’m afraid to go to bed tonight. What was it? Will it happen again? Do I have to move??

Be still my beating heart.

AL

2

Is it still there?

3

It’s a message from the albino cricket.

I vote for HUUUGE rat, since you’re in the middle of town. You don’t get many 'possoms there, I s’pect.

4

Dan, I live in the center of a huge city and we have opossums in the neighborhood.

5

Well, if it was the cricket, I suppose I should be debasing myself in front of some heathen shrine to apologize for my horror.

The reason I wondered if it’s an opossum is that I know we have them in the neighborhood - they tend to be like raccoons, drawn to urban areas with lots of trash cans and offal. They’re omnivorous, and very mean.

Rats, well, you’re right. I went to AU (also in Washington DC) and we used to shine flashlights out our windows at the amphitheater to watch them scatter. <shudder>

HOWEVER, the germaine thing here is IT WAS PRESSED UP AGAINST MY WINDOW, dripping ichor from its fangs and emitting the psychic equivalent of Vogon poetry.

Please forgive me if I’m not entirely rational about this. I think I’ll be sleeping on my couch for the next 5 years.

AL

6

If it’s a rat, try poison if you can use it without endangering kids or pets. For an opossum, I’d call a pro. A couple I know had an opossom nest in their attic and the fleas forced them out of their house for two months.

7

I’ve been here for 3 years and never seen either type of critter before - and it left as soon as it arrived, so I assume that it hasn’t taken up residence.

Besides, I RENT dammit. If anything has to be poisoned, I ain’t the one to do it, I promise you.

AL

8

My mistake - always thought of the 'possum as a much more rural creature.

9

Okay, did he look like this or like this?

If you need help, I’d be happy to come over and roust him for ya! :smiley:

10

Chill, AnnaLucretia! An ol’ 'possum’s no big deal. He was between the bars and glass, so he was outside and didn’t get inside, correct?
He was simply trying to escape the neighborhood canines, which are much more likely to cause you or your son a problem than old, slow, B’rer 'Possum is.

In all likelihood, he won’t be back. Although mean, they are so very slow they don’t pose much of a threat.

11

Oooh!! This gives me the perfect opening to tell our possum story!

Mr. Adoptamom and I used to live in the country - but with 3 other homes on our gravel lane and we could all see one another quite clearly.

Late one very, very stormy night, Junior the Wonder Dog would not stop barking, nor would he come inside when we called him. He had obviously cornered something. Thinking we were safe because it was so late and all the neighbors lights were out, Mr. Adoptamom runs outside with just his tighty whities on to investigate. He sees the evil glare and MEANS fangs of this HUGE possum - and I mean HUGE - this thing had to weigh in at 10-12 lbs easy and had a very long tail. Mr. Adoptamom tried his best for about 5 minutes to drag Junior the Wonder Dog back into the house so the possum could go it’s merry way and we all could return to sleep. Junior would not budge (110 lb lab folks).

Mr. Adoptamom decides to get his shotgun and wakes me in the process to hold an umbrella over his head whilst he shoots the critter. I run out in tank shirt and dainties, holding the umbrella to keep us both dry (not easy - I’m only 5’7" and Mr. Adoptamom is 6’7" and toting that danged shotgun)

About the time Mr. Adoptamom fired, our neighbors walk outside to see what the ruckus is, spot us in our skivies shooting a rifle in the wee hours of the morning and they RAN back inside.

They put a for sale sign up within a week :slight_smile:

12

Adoptamom_II , I have to say that the mental image of you on your tippie toes holding an umbrella over your skivvie-clad hubbie with a shotgun still has me giggling. Want to take a road trip to DC?

Dantheman would you roust it in your tighty-whities? Because if not, I don’t think it would work properly.

I’ve spoken to my neighbor, and I think we’re agreed that it’s a possum. We are calling animal control, only because opossums are VERY mean, and in cities they have completely lost their fear of humans and have been known to attack people and other domesticated animals.

Johnathan Chance , I grew up WAAAAY out in the country (farther out even than you are now, believe it or not), so I’m accustomed to critters…but urban critters are much more dangerous than their rural counterparts.

And why has everyone just glossed over the whole GAAAAAHHHH!! factor? I’m getting NO sympathy. <pout>

13

Johnathan Chance should actually be John Carter of Mars (love the name by the way).

I obviously need coffee. Sorry about that. Don’t know what I was thinking.

Hehe, I’ve just totally messed up Johnathan Chance’s daily vanity search.

AL

14

My what? What’s my underwear got to do with it?

I was gunna chase him with a broomstick… though I guess you could do that, huh? :wink:

15

Actually, no you haven’t - he spells it Jonathan. :smiley:

16

Damn. No lemonade outta this lemon.

17

I’m gonna go sit over here in my corner and continue to be confused.