Are Opposums Harmful?

[longhorn_92]

"Not Very Friendly, I think he may be scared".......

LOL...That is funny!!! Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!!

[Reloader]

Here in east Texas, some gals use extra large Hav-a-Harts to trap husbands..baited with six packs and jerky...LOL!

[gregthehand]

I had to remove one from infront of a girls door one time. They lived in an apartment next door to me and had a habbit of sitting their trash bags outside so they could take them down to the dumpster. Well this opossum climbed up three flights of stairs to get to the trash and was eating on some when the girl opened the door and saw it. I guess she saw it and scared it enough so that it just sat there in front of the door. The thing that alerted me was a loud pounding on a door. I looked out my door peep and didn't see anything so I sat back down to watch TV. When I heard it again I opened my door and saw the thing and her looking out her window at it! She was basically pounding on the door trying to get it to go away. I went to my room and grabbed some pepper spray off my belt as well as my ASP baton. When I squirted the dang thing he just laid there again and kind of teared up and snot (or something ran out his nose. Keep in mind that we were three flights up and in an elevated apartment so he's got nowhere to go. Anyway I wound up coaxing it down the stairs with my ASP baton. I kind of lead it like you would a pig (for those who have shown or seen pigs being shown). It went about it's business and I left it with an open can of tuna for its troubles!

[bpet]

Yum.

Tuna and pepper spray.

I'll bet your place is now marked as a special place to take your date for a wonderful possum night out.

[LaserTex]

We live on the outskirts of San Antonio, about 5 miles from Sea World and 8 miles from Fiesta Texas on the NorthWest side. Since the developers hate anything but asphalt and concrete, these little "kitties" have no choice but to excape into suburbia. Problem is I have a Staffordshire Terrier, well know for thier ability to handle vermin. Mine likes to jump up on the fence and pull them off by their hissing little heads and promptly bring them back to the house. First time this happened, Harley came back up to the back door, scratched on it as usual and my wife opens the door and let's him, and the possum playing little "kitty" into the house. This thing was well over 10 pounds and limp, until she saw it in Harley's mouth and started screaming. That seemed to scare Harley so he dropped the "kitty" who immediately was wide awake, probably hurting and really, really, really mad.

Now it became MY problem as I was "asked" to remove it from the house. Come on guys. You all know how they ask..."get that thing outta the house" at the top of her lungs.

I have seen these ugly beasts before but usually only on the road next to the other "Texas Speed bump" the armadillo. They are extremely intimidating with their demon fangs and hissing. Of course, by now, Harley is ready for the next round so he is over "helping" me. Finally got my leather work gloves on and caught the thing. Put it in the carrier we use to take the cats to the vet and called Animal Control. Helpful lot they are!! They don't pick up live animals. So, I load the hissing, snapping creature in the truck and drive it out past the High School to release him. Opened the door to the cage, waiting for it to just go away. He seemed to like it in there although I can't really understand demon hisses. Tipping the cage on its end made the hissing louder so I just left the cage for the night (it was now past 1130 pm) and went back for it the next day.

After I got back to the house, we checked over Harley for bites and scratchs. None that we could see but I took him to the vet just in case. He was current on shots but the vet did say that possums are excellent carriers of rabies and that it is better (for whom I am not sure) to kill them so that they can do rabies tests. And the city will pick up a dead animal. Go figure.

Doug