Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

As some may recall, I have a small backyard fenced in to allow Espy
and Nipsy to go outside. Well, a few days ago I see Nipsy in the hall
playing with his toy mouse. No, it's a live, or rather, dead mouse.
Burial at sea time.

Outside, a bit later, I see Nipsy playing with something, and it's
another mouse. I get that one away from him and drop it through the
fence into the yard next door. The next day I come home (they've been
inside the whole day because they only go out when I'm home) and
there's a dead mouse in the hallway. I guess one of them brought it in
the day before. Those were definitely mice.

Today is, as far as I can tell, baby opossum day. I think they're
opossums. They're not mice, or rats. Not voles I don't think, or
shrews. No, having seen an adult opossum (the THING in the backyard
thread of a few months ago), I think these are babys.

One ended up in the hall , where the dead mice were. It was still
alive so I set it free. Now I've seen one in a neighbor's yard, and
freed two more from the cats. I was just outside and Espy is parading
around with a fairly large grey thing in his mouth. I got it away and
sent it next door.

I'm bringing the boys in now. I realize this is what cats do, but I
don't have to be very happy about it. Mice and opossums are actually
pretty cute.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

"dgk" wrote in message
...
I'm bringing the boys in now. I realize this is what cats do, but I
don't have to be very happy about it. Mice and opossums are actually
pretty cute.

Opossums are cute until they develop some of their adult defense mechanisms
which include oozing a foul smelling phlehm and some of the most incredible
paint peeling farts on the face of the earth.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

On Mon, 22 May 2006 02:09:36 GMT, "RobZip" no wrote:


"dgk" wrote in message
.. .
I'm bringing the boys in now. I realize this is what cats do, but I
don't have to be very happy about it. Mice and opossums are actually
pretty cute.

Opossums are cute until they develop some of their adult defense mechanisms
which include oozing a foul smelling phlehm and some of the most incredible
paint peeling farts on the face of the earth.


The one I had didn't fart I guess, however it did leave a huge grey
poop in the center of the lawn. But opossums aren't destructive the
way that raccoons are, and don't carry rabies. They must live
somewhere around here, I guess under someone's deck or something.

In the long run perhaps it would have been better to let the boys
finish them off, because I sure don't know where more opossums are
going; there just isn't that much surface that isn't concrete or
asphalt. And we know that there are at least two adults around here
somewhere.

Well, there are several cats around that aren't as well supervised as
mine. I suspect the winnowing out of the opossum population explosion
is just beginning.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

I have opossums in my yard, happily. They come out at night and eat up
bugs. There's always a new youngster every summer and s/he loves to come
right up to the patio door and play staring contest with my two kitties.
VERY cute, entertaining, and helpful.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

On Mon, 22 May 2006 17:52:41 GMT, P No Gree G O
wrote:

I have opossums in my yard, happily. They come out at night and eat up
bugs. There's always a new youngster every summer and s/he loves to come
right up to the patio door and play staring contest with my two kitties.
VERY cute, entertaining, and helpful.

These guys are so small that they look like small rats. But they have
the white face and pinkish nose of opossums. I hear that they do get
along well with cats but I would think that is when they are bigger.
Right now they're just the right size to carry around.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

Aren't opossums marsupials? I thought that babies were carried in a
sack, doubt you kitties are getting baby oppossums? Sounds like voles
or shrews instead. Jen

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

JJ wrote:
Aren't opossums marsupials?

Nope.


I thought that babies were carried in a
sack, doubt you kitties are getting baby oppossums? Sounds like voles
or shrews instead. Jen

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

On Tue, 23 May 2006 02:44:02 GMT, P No Gree G O
wrote:

JJ wrote:
Aren't opossums marsupials?
Nope.

Yep.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

William Hamblen wrote:
On Tue, 23 May 2006 02:44:02 GMT, P No Gree G O
wrote:


JJ wrote:

Aren't opossums marsupials?

Nope.


Yep.


Oops, you're right! Sorry about that, folks.

Baby oPossum explosion - my boys are interested
 

On 22 May 2006 18:22:38 -0700, "JJ" wrote:

Aren't opossums marsupials? I thought that babies were carried in a
sack, doubt you kitties are getting baby oppossums? Sounds like voles
or shrews instead. Jen

I just looked up pictures of voles and shrews. Shrews are little and
look just like a mouse. Voles are bigger but leave runways in the
lawn, which I don't have. The guys that I saw looked like, well, this:

http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/opossum.htm

Same cute little white face and pink nose. Mine were bigger than these
guys though, so I guess that they've been weaned. And see the way that
the front guy's rear foot is going out to the side? That is just what
my guys did when I was pushing them through the chainlink fence into
the next yard. The rear foot reached out to hold the fence while it
got comfortable and then it moved off into the vegetation. Nope, I
think they were indeed little oPossums.

In fact, this site http://www.opossum.org/ says that they have thumbs
on their hind feet! Yes, that is just what it looked like. That rear
foot grabbed and held the chain link. But they weren't quite 7-9
inches yet. They were four or five inches though. Young to be weaned I
guess but that was the case.

Apparently they cause little harm and eat all kinds of things that do
harm. I'm glad I rescued the little guys and I hope they make it to
adulthood.