I admit, sometimes possum sounds mighty tasty! Don’t know what my yankee husband would think about it, though… 
Yuk! Never et possum, and I aint a’gonna start!
Um, Hal, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that is NOT a possum or an opossum. That is a baby R.O.U.S. and you are lucky you survived your encounter. Do you live near a fire swamp, perhaps?
That’s not ugly. That’s just a little grotesque.
I used to think that this was ugly. (Leaf-nosed bat, to warn anyone squeemish about chiropterans.)
Then someone introduced me to the image of the naked mole rat.
While I was living in Jersey City I had a possum come into my apartment. It was pretty tame, and if I hadn’t been working 60-80 hours a week, and familiar with how notorious they are, I’d have considered trying to tame it. As it was, I was pretty surprised to see that the feral cats hadn’t gotten it while it was younger. Glad to see your experience was so simple, Hal.
You win. :eek:
I will not stand by and see the naked mole rat maligned! Let’s see how good YOU look after spending a few millennia underground! 
Everyone knows that star-nosed moles are the ugliest mammals on this green earth, anyway.
Oh, poor thing. I will knit him a little sweater and carry him about in my purse.
That’s one amazingly adorable baby 'possum, Hal. You should submit the picture to Cute Overload.
Last summer we found a passel (found on the collective noun wepage!) of 3 baby opossums. Their mom had been killed by their natural predator, the car.
They were the cutest little things imaginable, like beady-eyed ducklings. They got to live in a shoebox for a couple of days before being dropped off at a rescue shelter.
Too bad they grow up so ugly.
So…was that you that I heard last night? 
No idea…I’ve searched every square inch of the basement (we’re selling, so I didn’t want the home inspection to bring up any nasty surprises), and I can’t find a single access.
We had a guy come in a couple of days ago to give up an estimate on replacing the furnace. I’m beginning to wonder if he works in cahoots with an exterminator – maybe he smuggles in little beasties in order to drum up business for his buddy.
Coming this summer to a theater near you: Mister Bean’s Fursuit.
I don’t know why possums are so creepy, but they do give me the willies. The day I gave birth to my daughter, we were headed for the hospital right around dawn. I opened our back door, and there was a mama possum with about 8 rather large babies hanging off of her (this was in June, so I’m thinking those babies were about old enough to make their own way in the world). It looked like a horror film creature, with all those eyes and tails. EEK! To this day, I’m surprised I didn’t drop that baby out right then and there.
Did you check your clothes dryer exhaust. Quite often a small animal can crawl into it if the flapper is stuck. They go to it for the warmth and then if there is any flexible hose, they can quite often get into the house that way.
Do you have the hurricane doors to the outside and were they open recently. The critter could have snuck in then without anyone knowing.
First pic is now my wallpaper. Ugly is relative, and all that 
JRB
The flapper is broken off, so an animal could get in there…but it’d have to be a bird. The laundry room is on the second floor, and the vent is 20’ off the ground.
Yeah, we have hurricane doors, but it’s been ages since they’ve been opened.
I’ll be seeing my brother over the weekend, and I’m going to pick up a humane trap from him. I figure I’ll put it in the basement and keep some food in there for the next week or so, just to see if anything else is getting in.
Okay, the idea it was a plant to drum up pest control business is sounding better.
Hal, that’s terrible! You wouldn’t be so heartless as to capture …
Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you said human trap.
Grandma? :eek:
no offence to any of my Grannies… i’ve been good i swear!
How else is he going to get Sal Ammoniac out of his basement?
That’s one mightly scary monster – I trust that you will take my advice and move out of the neighbourhood forthwith.