One Weird Night!

[Mary Kay]

back ground: I live in a semi rural area on 2 1/2 acres. My neighbors have the same or more. Lots of pines, ponds and open ground. We get our share of critters around here. Once a horse followed home from a walk and another time a goat dropped by and tried to come inside. Snakes and rats too, when we had our stable (turned chicken coop).
So anywho, last night Sheba (white german Shepard) was barking her head off. She had a possum trapped under an orange tree. Poor thing was dead, tongue lolling out, on it's back, no babies thank goodness. I managed to wrestle Sheba back in the house and went to tend to the razor toothed possum. I put a leaf rake under her and it started to bend so I grabbed her/His tail. All of a sudden that tail whipped around my arm in a death grip. The eyes were wide open and I could count the shark teeth in it's smile. If I had had an extra hand I would have slapped my forehead in a..."how stupid are you" gesture.
He was playing Possum..dead.
I managed to get to the fence and tip him over, it was a good 2 minutes of hanging my arm over the fence which is topped by barbed wire (old owners idea) before the possum let go.
It took me 5 minutes (and me without a vape) to get my heart beating again.
Mike is still laughing
Have you had one of 'Those" days?

[Rexa]

Can i say "WoW!"?

I take it, it didn't bite you did it? Or it was just wrapped around your arm?

[Mary Kay]

No bites! I would have had to take shots and I don't do needles! It just wrapped that naked tail around my wrist.
But we may have to go to the emergency room soon if Mike doesn't shut up!

[bmacva]

No bites! I would have had to take shots and I don't do needles! It just wrapped that naked tail around my wrist.
But we may have to go to the emergency room soon if Mike doesn't shut up!

Mary Kay,
Mike is another story. Let's just leave it at that, ok????

Otherwise, I think many of us would have done the same.

So, you can say that you officially saw a 'possum playing dead. I saw a raccoon in a trashcan once. Wow. I'm more impressed with your story.

[Mary Kay]

I would like to say it was 4:30 am and the dog woke me from a dead sleep. I would like to say that! The truth is if it would have happened at high noon, I would have done the same dumb thing!
I have seen chickens do the same thing, but picking up a possum playing chicken isn't as scary. I am not afraid of chicken teeth!
As for Mike... all i can say is please start raising the bail now..TIA

[mixxy]

I playin' possum experience with our old dog Milly (Cocker/BeagleX) many years ago. She got a possum in the back yard and was shaking it like crazy. I was screaming at Milly to drop it... but she wouldn't. I was so upset, and when she did finally drop it I thought it was dead for sure. I even went out with a flashlight to look at it several times, just to make sure My hubby was working nights at the time, and when I took him out the next day to "bury" the darn thing... it was long gone!

[Idahojo]

Mary Kay this story had me laughing, not as hard as I'm sure your hubby is laughing, but laughing for sure. I'm so glad you didn't get bit. That part is really scary. You could've been hurt bad girl!! Maybe you need to leave those critters for your laughing hubby to take care of, then you can be the one laughing. LOL

[DMacRae]

Whipping him over the fence was good thinking! Way to keep your cool!

[rejoice]

That would have scared me bad. I live in the country and yes possium do this.
Glad it did not hurt you. They can be real mean. Lesson learn do not pick up a possium until it is dead for a while. A long while. Make darn well sure it is DEAD.

[Siobhan]

This one made me laugh and squeamed me out a bit. I don't know why, but possums creep me out a little.