Tom Moertel's Weblog: Night of the long-tailed beast!

Night of the long-tailed beast!

Tom Moertel — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:39:00 -0500

When I let the dog out this evening, it didn’t take long for her to start barking. Figuring she had cornered the neighbor’s cat, I went outside and called her. Naturally, she ignored my order to come back into the house.

Angrily, I marched up to her, underneath the crabapple tree, and took her by the collar. I made sure to bend low and look her in the eyes, just to let her know that I was not happy about having to walk in the wet grass to fetch her. When I stood up to lead her back to the house, my head reached into the lower branches of the crabapple tree.

And then I saw it, inches from my face, looking right back at me.

Instinctively, I jumped back. What the hell was that thing? It definitely was bigger than a cat, and it had a freakish, rat-like tail. And it was looking right at me.

I took the dog back into the house. Then, regaining my composure, I grabbed my camera and tripod, intent on capturing the beast on film. By this time I realized that it must be an opossum. I had seen a few as a child when I lived in rural Pennsylvania.

Opossums are harmless and often act like they are dead – “playing possum” – when threatened. They actually go stiff. This one, for example, held itself completely motionless during the eight-second exposure that I used to capture the following photo without flash in the dark Pittsburgh night:

If you check the Wikipedia entry on Virginia Opossum, you’ll see a more ferocious looking specimen, which is how I imagine my opossum looked when I first saw it. Nevertheless, opossums are harmless. If you want to see them at their most cuddly, check out the photos on the PossumRescue.com home page, where I found this little guy:

Local copy so as not to take bandwith from PossumRescue’s server.
(Look at how cute he is. Could you take bandwidth from his server?)

More opossum tidbits:

Opossums are North America’s only marsupials. They carry their young in pouches, just like kangaroos do.
Opossums have opposable thumbs on their hind feet.
When opossums play dead, they enter an involuntary coma and emit a stinky, I-am-dead scent.

Opossums are interesting stuff.

"Night of the long-tailed beast!" by Lynn

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:55:43 -0400

Hey, I forgot to mention that their tail is prehensile. They don’t hang from it while sleeping, but use it for wrapping around a tree limb for balance. They also gather leaves, etc. together with their feet and push this back toward their tail and then their tail wraps around their “bedding” and they carry it off to where they are going to sleep.

As a book I read said, they are “Dim but Remarkable.”

"Night of the long-tailed beast!" by Lynn

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:45:33 -0400

Opossums are shy animals and do not attack unless they feel threatened. In cities, their enemies are dogs, cars and man. Your dogs were bloodied because they backed the possum into a place where he felt he was going to be killed. If you bring your dog in, turn off the yard light, or any other light shining on him, he will waddle way from the threat. In the wild, they live 1 to 2 years, if they’re lucky, so please don’t kill them. Life is short enough as it is. They will eat mice, rats, snakes, snails, lizards, roaches, insects of all kinds, and carrion – one of Mother Nature’s cleanup crew. They are also attracted to those bowls of cat food people leave outside. They are amazing animals – No. Amer. only marsupial, have 50 teeth – more than any other land mammal, carry their babies in a pouch and, after the babies are old enough, they ride on mom’s back. “Tough” could refer to the fact that they’ve been around since the dinosaur age. To really get to know this shy and gentle creature, volunteer at your local wildlife rescue group. They really could use your help. I’ve been rehabbing opossums for 12 years and have loved every minute of it. Releasing them back into the wild is something you’ll never forget. As for having them for pets, some states forbid that. I’ve seen web sites that sell them for pets. If you’re nocturnal, that might work out. They sleep soundly all day and are moving about all night. If you want to sleep at night, you might not want an opossum walking across the bed or crawling under the covers with you. They’ll probably just curl up and go to sleep with you, after searching diligently for any crumbs of course. Next time you see an opossum, sit back and enjoy watching it sniffing along looking for whatever it can find.

"Night of the long-tailed beast!" by Tom Moertel

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:30:24 -0500

Mark, thanks for the anecdote. Now when I go outside to fetch my barking dog, instead of thinking about cuddly, tree-climbing micro-kangaroos, I’ll think about “tough as nails” and “not too friendly, either.”

Just what I needed.

;-)

"Night of the long-tailed beast!" by Mark Denovich

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:53:00 -0500

I can say from experience that they are as tough as nails, and when cornered are not too friendly either. Every once and a while one of our Jack Russel terriers would tangle with one. Even when two on one, it was a pretty even fight.

It is interesting to learn that the “playing dead” is more than just playing, but an actual coma.

(non-cute story to follow…)

After the third time our terrier got bloodied playing with a neighborhood ’possum, I decided to put an end to it. Trying not to draw attention, I decided to use my bow. I found it in the yard “playing dead” (and smelling like it) and put a quiver full of arrows in him, without even a flinch. I thought our dog must have already killed it. It wasn’t until I got the shovel, and pulled the arrows out that it briefly came to and surprised the hell out of me.

"Night of the long-tailed beast!" by Tom

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:19:59 -0500

That’s amazing. I never knew those things were that huge! They’re damn cute too, but I doubt they’d make a good pet.