Posted on 04/04/2008 1:14:48 AM PDT by rollo tomasi
Woke around 1:30 AM hearing strange noise in the kitchen. My daughter's Persian cat had what looked like a possum or rat cornered. Needless to say I was startled a bit.
When I turned on the light I noticed blood then the long tail animal escaping behind the baseboard.
If any animal expert or lover would chime in I would be appreciative.
1) The Persian has her front claws out (Indoor cat) and upon inspection did not notice any blood or bite marks on the body. Could the cat have used the back claws? If the cat did bite the thing would there not be blood around the mouth?
2) 'Belle' the cat has her rabies shots up to date. If the long tail possum or rat had rabies what are the chances 'Belle' could contract the disease?
3) Anyone have any tips on catching possums or rats? I can see the tail hanging out of the baseboard. Seeing it's not even the crack of dawn yet, help would be futile from "expert" rat/possum catchers.
By the way judging from the short glimpse it looked like a possum. Had that triangular feature but then again the thing was screaming.
Thank you in advance.
First of all, ID whether it is a possum or a rat. If it's a rat, shoot it with a .22 - might bite you!
If it's a possum, "Lasso" it with some rope, and drag it out of the house. (At least, that's what I did.)
After you get it outside, undo the rope, and it'll scamper off. (Getting the rope off without getting bit is the hard part. I pet the one I caught, then untied the rope. I smacked him on the hip, and he ran off!)
Many years ago I lived temporarily in an old house and a young possum starting coming in at night. I chased him down the hallway every morning and when he “sulled-up” in the corner I grabbed him by the tail and carried him outside. He never tried to bite me. He just hung there playing dead. If they don’t “sull-up” they will bite. I did this until he got big enough that he couldn’t get in wherever he was getting in.
A rat, on the other hand, will bite and can carry rabies. They will also growl. The possum never tried to bite me and I’ve never heard of one having rabies. I’m not saying they can’t; I’ve just never heard of it.
I know! I’m a country girl and most of you won’t know what I’m talking about. :-)
Love your screen name - that was a great movie!
No - it was a boy cat. My friend lives in a 100+ year old farmhouse. Once Zippy caught a mouse and then sat there in the kitchen with the whole mouse in his mouth, just pondering and sucking on it. He finally decided he wasn’t hungry and just spit it out and laid down. Mouse escaped. Friend was mad at cat. But it was funny.
When in doubt, ask the experts...be sure to turn up the sound first...
The Possum Cookbook
http://members.tripod.com/~w3lap/possum_cook_book.htm
How to Catch a Possum
Since all the recipes here involve possum, I figured it might be worth it to include a section on how to get your hands on one.
I know of several ways to catch a possum. Perhaps the easiest is to simply drive around for a while in your truck. The problem will soon resolve itself.
(SCCRRRREEEEEEECCHHH!!. . . SPLAT. . .)
Much more fun, however, is to take your dogs and shotgun, and go into the woods and hunt one down. The advantage to this method is that you don’t have to scrape the possum off the pavement. The disadvantage is that you do have to worry about shotgun pellets in the meat.
(OUCH! Dadgum it! There went my best tooth!)
Not to mention that a shotgun blast can really mess up the hide, which makes it a lot harder for the taxidermist.
It is also possible to set traps to catch a possum, but this method is notoriously unreliable. Possums like to stay in the trees, and you’re much more likely to catch something else.
(Hey, Ed! There’s something in the trap! See them bushes moving? Let’s see what it is! . . . OH, SH*T! IT’S A SKUNK!!)
Possums are also notoriously hard to kill, and they will play dead if threatened. I remember hearing about someone who had a possum get in his garage one time. He was real mad about something, and having a possum rooting around in his garage making a mess just made it worse, so he took after that thing with a shovel. The possum never had a chance. He did have to chop its head off to make sure it was dead; otherwise they just get up and walk off. It was real strange; right after he beheaded the possum, lightning or something struck the garage, blowing out all the lightbulbs and giving him quite a shock. (If you don’t get the joke here, don’t worry.)
Please note that we’re talking about the North American opossum here. There is a species of possum native to Australia which is endangered. It is strictly illegal to hunt, trap, or kill an Australian possum.
**SCHNIPP**
And my personal Culinary advice is: Long, slow, moist heat guarantees your possum will be nice and tender...
Not sure how Florida squirrels and armadillos would taste compared to the Texas type but both are easy to find here.
This is a great thread. Here’s my two cents worth. I’ve seen dogs absolutely refuse to go near a possum. Here in Kansas the only thing that smells worse when upset is a skunk.
If you’re looking for a way to control the critters long term - get a terrier. They are much better at catching and killing rats than a cat. Cats play with their food and often turn it loose. The critter then crawls off to die in the wall.
We had a dachshund once that would sit quietly at the mouse hole and when one came out, he would kill it, lay it aside and go back to quietly waiting. He killed five in one night. Then Mr. Mercat plugged up all the holes which ultimately is the only way to keep the critters out of your home.
Put on some heavy gloves, grab the garbage can with your left hand, grab the tail with your right hand, pull hard enough on the critter then dump it into the garbage can.
Then the choices of what to do with it are endless..........
Check the internet, there are some great possum recipes out there........
I like cats and my daughter's cat is great at catching stuff but worried she does not go for the kill right away (The wrong critter could bounce back and hurt her). She will catch a lizard, play with it and let it loose near death. I like lizards because they go after the mosquitoes which are plenty around here. I just resort to letting the cat catch the things but make her spit it out outside.
2 weeks ago my neighbor saw 2 young ones in the afternoon so the following evening I got out the trap and caught one of them. When they're small and young they are kind of cute but the reality is that they grow up and become snarly and ugly.
Its best to put them down once trapped.......no sense releasing it somewhere and letting it become someone else's problem.........
Once an critter is caught by a cat, the critter dies. Cat saliva is toxic. Don’t worry though, the lizard population will rebound from what I’ve heard about Florida. We have a small farm and decided to put up a martin house to attract purple martins because we thought that they ate mosquitos. After it was up (and promptly blew down in a Kansas wind storm) we researched and discovered that no, purple martins eat dragonflies and it’s the dragonflies that eat skeeters. We have millions of dragonflies.
Once you finally get the critter out, you may want to figure out where it came in. A hole in one of your eaves, clothes dryer exhaust vent, etc. If they’re in your attic or walls, throw some moth balls in. Most critters, bats, snakes, etc. will leave and not return.
Wow....is that the only solution you see? To kill it by poison or a rifle? IS there a reason why she couldnt just open the doors and let or chase the thing out the door and let it live? They are great bug eaters.
Both possums and rats are omnivores, meaning they’ll eat anything. Rabies is much more common in wild carnivores such as raccoons, foxes, and skunks. Bats also can carry rabies but so can any mammal. If your cat’s shots are up to date, don’t worry about rabies.
“Cat saliva is toxic.”
Wow, I did not know that. Does that go for all feline/panther species?
What a wonderful country. In New Zealand dinner delivers itself!
OPOSSUM PIE
2 c. flour
2 sticks soft butter
Blend together and add 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Pat this in a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool.
Blend 8 ounce of soft cream cheese and 1 cup powdered sugar. Stir in 1 cup of Cool Whip (13 ounce container). Pour 1 large box of instant chocolate pudding (made up) on the crust, then pour on the cream cheese mixture and spread the remaining Cool Whip. Sprinkle with chopped pecans.
We live in a small town in NC and we had a young possum in our basement a couple years ago. We borrowed a humane trap from a friend and baited it with peanut butter on crackers. We caught him the first night we had the trap out and the next morning we called Animal Control. They came out and picked him up to be relocated, or so my husband assured me. I have a sneaking suspicion they really put it down.
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