[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Good evening all...

Came home this evening to find one of these in the grass next to our sidewalk:

(not the actual possum in question, I found this pic on a website about possums)

Anyway, I figured it was a "gift" from one of the neighborhood cats, or perhaps it had fallen off the roof (it's been raining heavily today) so I scooped it into a plastic bag and put it in the garbage.

Now, however, I find out from the website I got the pic from that it may have not been dead, but actually "playing possum"; the one in the pic is, and the one in our yard looked almost the same. Of course, ours was attracting flies, so I dunno...

Anyway, I figure I'll go out to the garbage can in the morning to see if he's still dead, alive and angry, or alive and managed to get out...

[RosieCotton]

Ewwww!

Late birthday present from a neighborhood cat?

[Darksheare]

I scared one so bad once that it fell out of a tree.
The thud as it hit the ground was hysterical.

[Corin Stormhands]

You want the link to buy the fox and bobcat pee I bought to ward off the critters?

Seriesly, it's dried stuff. Arrived today. Sposed to help get rid of the voles and moles and another kind "should" keep the squirrels away.

[Fedora]

That'll teach 'im to play possum--LOL!

[g'nad]

If'n yuh see the garbage can rockin', don't bother knockin...

a ball bat does wonderful blunt trauma tuh varmints...

[HairOfTheDog]

I find out from the website I got the pic from that it may have not been dead, but actually "playing possum"; the one in the pic is, and the one in our yard looked almost the same.

That happened to me once. I was all dressed for work and had put the dogs out when I see this critter ambling across the yard. The dogs saw it and went after it. Well, I don't like them eating stuff like that, so I went out and picked it up with a shovel and it looked dead as can be... stiff and mouth open like that. I thought about what to do with it, I didn't want it in my garbage, thought about but rejected the burn barrel. I had to get to work, so I tossed it over my fence (coincidentally in the spot it had come from) and walked away. Two minutes later it was in the yard again! - looked like it had some kind of possum plan to get across to the other side, so I walked out to it and tried to just herd it across the yard keeping the dogs away. Well, when I got too close, it keeled over dead. Picked it up again with the shovel and put it over the fence on the side it seemed to want to be on, and after a minute or two, off it went!

I think 'playing possum' is a tactic that worked real well for them, until the invention of the automobile.

Good morning everyone!