I guess they raise young men different these days. When I was 21 if a possum ate my Costco chocolate cake I would have killed it without hesitation simply out of principal.
No nasty rodent is going to eat my cake even if mom was begging me for clemency for the filthy beast.
Mom your son is a wimp take him down to the enlistment center and leave him there.
Around here they get lead poisoning.
Possums are marsupials, not rodents.