[OT] Horrible Experience - Rabid Possum

While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

Pat wrote:

While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

You *had* to kill it. It was a danger to you and Dave and all your
kitties. And it was going to die, a lot more agonizingly than the
death you gave it. It's too bad about the firearms law - I can
understand it, if there are a lot of people around you don't want
someone getting shot. But in this case, you would have had a good
reason for using it.

In any case, I think you dealt with it really well, and I'm glad
nobody got bitten!

Joyce

--
I prefer to live with Feline Sapiens, thank you very much.

hopitus wrote:

I assume none of your cats was in there with it. I hope.

Nope, no cats out there.

are talking something I know a lot about from FL. Did you know that
possums, when ****ed off, can foam at mouth without being rabid?

This one had no reason to be ****ed off, it was alone in the dark, and
when I came out, I wasn't even close to it, I just pointed the
flashlight and could see the drool all over its face and all over some
cardboard boxes next to it. Those boxes were just DRIPPING with possom
spit, that was already there when I went out.

I had a whole family of possums living in space beneath my Jacuzzi
in FL backyard. I would turn on the spa heater on side of house and
wait several hours till warm water then get in spa. Once in awhile a
very large possum would emerge from the side where all the tubes
and pumps were underground and amble along the edge ignoring me.
Never did any fall in with me (my original fear) and over the years I
got to ignoring their late night promenades around the edge

That's hilarious!

"Pat" wrote in message
...
While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

Did you report it to your local animal control office? I'd think they'd
want to know about something like this.

Joy

Joy wrote:

Did you report it to your local animal control office? *I'd think they'd
want to know about something like this.

Animal Control only works the day shift here. I'll let them know ASAP.
In fact, they can have the body if they want it!

On Tue, 3 May 2011 23:28:28 -0700 (PDT), Pat
wrote:

While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

I keep some shot shells for a revolver, for just this purpose.

I made them myself, with very small shot pellets: very little danger of
ricochet. And, there aren't very many pellets, compared to a shotgun.

They are good up to about 10 feet; originally made for shooting snakes.

It may be illegal to discharge a firearm in the city, but in a case like
this, there would not be any prosecution....even if they could catch me,
which would be damn near impossible, anyways.

Unless somebody actually SEES you discharge a firearm, the police can't
really do anything.

Even if a neighbor calls, hearing the report, and the police come, you
are under absolutely no obligation to incriminate yourself.

What noise, ossifer?

Just get the corpse out of sight, immediately, and don't leave shell
casings, or firearms, in plain view.

In this case, I would not have wanted to get nearly as close as you did,
to an obviously rabid animal.

I'm glad that nobody was bitten!

"Pat" wrote in message
...
While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

Call Animal Control?

Jill

I have never heard of rabid possum. have talked to several wildlife
experts who tell me that possums cannot get rabies do to their body
temp, does not get warm enough to incubate virus . But I guess anything
is possible, did you have the possum tested for rabies ?


Michael Lane

The men American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring
liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try and tell
them the truth -- H. L. Mencken
































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**

On Tue, 3 May 2011 23:47:56 -0700 (PDT), hopitus
wrote:

On May 4, 12:28*am, Pat wrote:
While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

I assume none of your catrs was in there with it. I hope. Now here we
are talking something I know a lot about from FL. Did you know that
possums, when ****ed off, can foam at mouth without being rabid?
Since it didn't bite any of your cats, I see no reason to get its head
to a lab for rabies yea or nay, And ton't feel bad about killing it;
you
can't have something like that around your place.


It probably wasn't rabies:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Anim...rd-opposum.htm

But it should get tested.

On May 4, 1:28*am, Pat wrote:
While I was trying to go to sleep about an hour ago, I heard loud
noises in the carport. I went out with a flashlight and found a huge
possum, frothing at the mouth with a very hostile demeanor. Normally
possums in the carport do not act this way, they just sort of ignore
me or run off. Not this one, it was spoiling for a fight!

I woke Dave up to help me figure out how to deal with it. We have
firearms but it is illegal to discharge them in town. We tried to
drive it into a 5-gallon bucket head first so we could slap the lid on
it and then turn it over to the sheriff. That didn't work. Finally
Dave made a noose and attached it to a long stick, and I drove it in
the right direction. We soon had it by the neck.

At least asphyxiation is one of the less unpleasant ways to die. I
would have preferred to shoot it, or hand it off to the sheriff, but
this was the only choice we really had. I feel bad about it, and will
have trouble sleeping tonight. But what else could we do?

We had an experience similar with rabid skunk many years ago. When
you take the animal off for testing, the health department gets all
involved. They might have demanded that you quarantine all your
cats or something. Which IMHO is not necessary as they were not
exposed.
It's really unusual for an oppossum to have rabies. But certainly not
unheard of.
What's really worrisome is how many neighborhood strays/wildlife have
been exposed too.

Sherry