OT Just relocated a kittke possum

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

On Oct 16, 9:17*am, Kraut / Larry S. wrote:
Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. *Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). *Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. *He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

If it's not very many miles out, he will probably be back. I've been
through this process and have had to keep relocating the same animal
until I finally took it far enough out.

It was kind of cute to see how it played so dead in the trap that I
had to shake it out onto the ground upon arrival at the new location.

"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in message
...

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more than about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten for a week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out, indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Oct 16, 11:59 am, "Joy" wrote:
"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in
messagenews:tobjb69va7qeslp6at1h4n4j1louq25ubn@4ax .com...



Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more than
about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten for a
week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out,
indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

As in your sig....don't believe everything you *read*! Had a lage but
old early-model
Jacuzzi in backyard of my FL house. It was, natch, in-ground, and in a
space under'
it lived a whole family of opossums. I got to know them quite well and
they lived there
for *years* as I did nothing to harm them. Late a night, after I had
got the Jacuzzi
all warmed up with the heater, I would go out there in near-dark (had
a weak path
solar light) and turn on the spa switch for bubbling massage, and go
on in. More than
once, would open my eyes to see a very fat opossum strolling around
the octagonal
flat edge rail , completely ignoring the hoomin in the bubble water! I
had some fear the
first few years that unwelcome critter would *fall inl* with me, but
those little critters
are very sure-footed nocturnal beings. They got really fearsome-
looking set of teeth
but are not aggressive. I guess they liked it sleeping all day in the
dark under the
spa and its nearby covered machinery.

***

That sounds delightful! My experience with possums is somewhat limited.

Many years ago, there was a neighborhood cat that would come in through the
cat door and eat my cats' food, which was in the kitchen. Sometimes the cat
would start a fight with one of my cats. I moved the food from the kitchen
to the master bath, hoping it would no longer tempt the cat to come in. One
night a few days later, I was reading in bed when I heard a very loud
crunching in the master bath. I knew my cats didn't eat that noisily, so I
assumed it was the neighbor cat. As I started to get up to chase it out, an
animal ran out of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a large rat, and
was petrified. I later found out it was a possum.

Several days after that, I heard a banging from the kitchen. The cat door
had tabs you could slide out to lock the door. Sometimes they would slip,
and it the door were in the right position, either the 'in' or the 'out'
would be locked, but the door could still be used in the other direction. I
assumed that had happened, and one of my cats was trying to get either in or
out. When I got out to the kitchen, I found that I was right about the
door, but instead of a cat, it was a possum trying to get out. I opened the
door, then walked away from it, and he went out.

Someone in a newsgroup (I don't think it was this one) mentioned that
possums like fruit, so I started putting a small dish of dry cat food, and a
small amount of cut up fruit in the garage. As far as I know, the possum
never came in the house. For several days, the food disappeared regularly.
Then I started finding chewed up fruit, so I stopped putting the food out.

A few months later, I opened the back door to let Lindy (RB) out (She
wouldn't use the cat door if I were there to open the door for her.). She
got halfway out the door, glanced to her left, and froze. Since the washing
machine is just to the left of the door, I assumed her interest was in
something behind it. I got a flashlight, leaned out and looked. There was
a mother possum with a fairly good-sized one on her back. I started putting
the food out, and the same thing happened as before.

A year or so later, there was the smell of something dead in my garage.
After a great deal of searching, the source was found to be a dead possum
behind some boxes.

That is my total experience with possums, unless you count the time I held
one at Steve Erwin's Australian Zoo. ;-)

Joy

"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Oct 16, 12:40 pm, "Joy" wrote:
"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 11:59 am, "Joy" wrote:



"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in
messagenews:tobjb69va7qeslp6at1h4n4j1louq25ubn@4ax .com...

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more than
about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten for a
week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out,
indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

As in your sig....don't believe everything you *read*! Had a lage but
old early-model
Jacuzzi in backyard of my FL house. It was, natch, in-ground, and in a
space under'
it lived a whole family of opossums. I got to know them quite well and
they lived there
for *years* as I did nothing to harm them. Late a night, after I had
got the Jacuzzi
all warmed up with the heater, I would go out there in near-dark (had
a weak path
solar light) and turn on the spa switch for bubbling massage, and go
on in. More than
once, would open my eyes to see a very fat opossum strolling around
the octagonal
flat edge rail , completely ignoring the hoomin in the bubble water! I
had some fear the
first few years that unwelcome critter would *fall inl* with me, but
those little critters
are very sure-footed nocturnal beings. They got really fearsome-
looking set of teeth
but are not aggressive. I guess they liked it sleeping all day in the
dark under the
spa and its nearby covered machinery.

***

That sounds delightful! My experience with possums is somewhat limited.

Many years ago, there was a neighborhood cat that would come in through
the
cat door and eat my cats' food, which was in the kitchen. Sometimes the
cat
would start a fight with one of my cats. I moved the food from the kitchen
to the master bath, hoping it would no longer tempt the cat to come in.
One
night a few days later, I was reading in bed when I heard a very loud
crunching in the master bath. I knew my cats didn't eat that noisily, so I
assumed it was the neighbor cat. As I started to get up to chase it out,
an
animal ran out of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a large rat, and
was petrified. I later found out it was a possum.

Several days after that, I heard a banging from the kitchen. The cat door
had tabs you could slide out to lock the door. Sometimes they would slip,
and it the door were in the right position, either the 'in' or the 'out'
would be locked, but the door could still be used in the other direction.
I
assumed that had happened, and one of my cats was trying to get either in
or
out. When I got out to the kitchen, I found that I was right about the
door, but instead of a cat, it was a possum trying to get out. I opened
the
door, then walked away from it, and he went out.

Someone in a newsgroup (I don't think it was this one) mentioned that
possums like fruit, so I started putting a small dish of dry cat food, and
a
small amount of cut up fruit in the garage. As far as I know, the possum
never came in the house. For several days, the food disappeared regularly.
Then I started finding chewed up fruit, so I stopped putting the food out.

A few months later, I opened the back door to let Lindy (RB) out (She
wouldn't use the cat door if I were there to open the door for her.). She
got halfway out the door, glanced to her left, and froze. Since the
washing
machine is just to the left of the door, I assumed her interest was in
something behind it. I got a flashlight, leaned out and looked. There was
a mother possum with a fairly good-sized one on her back. I started
putting
the food out, and the same thing happened as before.

A year or so later, there was the smell of something dead in my garage.
After a great deal of searching, the source was found to be a dead possum
behind some boxes.

That is my total experience with possums, unless you count the time I held
one at Steve Erwin's Australian Zoo. ;-)

Joy

You *held* a possum??!! Gotta give you a MileHigh Salute for that, my
dead body
would hold one. No, I never, ever attempted to feed the backyard spa
residents, as
yes, they do look rodent-like, I to this day have no idea what they
eat/ate (large family
of iguanas in the monster trees nearby but that's ridiculous as the
possums, fat as
they were (evidently eating good) were much smaller than the huge
iguanas. Now that
you inform me they like fruit, there was a banana tree back there as
well as an avacoda
tree and a mango tree, so I now realize the possums liked the menu.
My Akita would run into one infrequently but ignored them.
Since you mention the possum family you found, brought back really
older memory than
that gang under my spa.....long ago, in my hometown, Miami, I went to
my backyard tool
shed to grab a machete I had in there to hack big weeds with. Opening
the door, I was
face to face with a snarling, glaring Mama Possum standing over her
new babies and daring
the hoomin invader to take her on. The weeds got pretty high in my
yard before I ventured
to look in the shed again, and found it deserted of resident critters.

***

I'd have done the same. One doesn't mess with a Mama anything protecting
her babies.

The possum I held was an Australian ring-tailed possum and was tame. I've
also held koalas, ridden a camel and petted a dingo pup, a baby Tasmanian
devil and a wombat.

Joy

"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Oct 16, 1:37 pm, hopitus wrote:
On Oct 16, 12:40 pm, "Joy" wrote:



"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 11:59 am, "Joy" wrote:

"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in
messagenews:tobjb69va7qeslp6at1h4n4j1louq25ubn@4ax .com...

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found
a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out.
Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more than
about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known
possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten for a
week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out,
indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

As in your sig....don't believe everything you *read*! Had a lage but
old early-model
Jacuzzi in backyard of my FL house. It was, natch, in-ground, and in a
space under'
it lived a whole family of opossums. I got to know them quite well and
they lived there
for *years* as I did nothing to harm them. Late a night, after I had
got the Jacuzzi
all warmed up with the heater, I would go out there in near-dark (had
a weak path
solar light) and turn on the spa switch for bubbling massage, and go
on in. More than
once, would open my eyes to see a very fat opossum strolling around
the octagonal
flat edge rail , completely ignoring the hoomin in the bubble water! I
had some fear the
first few years that unwelcome critter would *fall inl* with me, but
those little critters
are very sure-footed nocturnal beings. They got really fearsome-
looking set of teeth
but are not aggressive. I guess they liked it sleeping all day in the
dark under the
spa and its nearby covered machinery.

***

That sounds delightful! My experience with possums is somewhat limited.

Many years ago, there was a neighborhood cat that would come in through
the
cat door and eat my cats' food, which was in the kitchen. Sometimes the
cat
would start a fight with one of my cats. I moved the food from the
kitchen
to the master bath, hoping it would no longer tempt the cat to come in.
One
night a few days later, I was reading in bed when I heard a very loud
crunching in the master bath. I knew my cats didn't eat that noisily, so
I
assumed it was the neighbor cat. As I started to get up to chase it out,
an
animal ran out of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a large rat,
and
was petrified. I later found out it was a possum.

Several days after that, I heard a banging from the kitchen. The cat
door
had tabs you could slide out to lock the door. Sometimes they would
slip,
and it the door were in the right position, either the 'in' or the 'out'
would be locked, but the door could still be used in the other
direction. I
assumed that had happened, and one of my cats was trying to get either
in or
out. When I got out to the kitchen, I found that I was right about the
door, but instead of a cat, it was a possum trying to get out. I opened
the
door, then walked away from it, and he went out.

Someone in a newsgroup (I don't think it was this one) mentioned that
possums like fruit, so I started putting a small dish of dry cat food,
and a
small amount of cut up fruit in the garage. As far as I know, the possum
never came in the house. For several days, the food disappeared
regularly.
Then I started finding chewed up fruit, so I stopped putting the food
out.

A few months later, I opened the back door to let Lindy (RB) out (She
wouldn't use the cat door if I were there to open the door for her.).
She
got halfway out the door, glanced to her left, and froze. Since the
washing
machine is just to the left of the door, I assumed her interest was in
something behind it. I got a flashlight, leaned out and looked. There
was
a mother possum with a fairly good-sized one on her back. I started
putting
the food out, and the same thing happened as before.

A year or so later, there was the smell of something dead in my garage.
After a great deal of searching, the source was found to be a dead
possum
behind some boxes.

That is my total experience with possums, unless you count the time I
held
one at Steve Erwin's Australian Zoo. ;-)

Joy

You *held* a possum??!! Gotta give you a MileHigh Salute for that, my
dead body
would hold one. No, I never, ever attempted to feed the backyard spa
residents, as
yes, they do look rodent-like, I to this day have no idea what they
eat/ate (large family
of iguanas in the monster trees nearby but that's ridiculous as the
possums, fat as
they were (evidently eating good) were much smaller than the huge
iguanas. Now that
you inform me they like fruit, there was a banana tree back there as
well as an avacoda
tree and a mango tree, so I now realize the possums liked the menu.
My Akita would run into one infrequently but ignored them.
Since you mention the possum family you found, brought back really
older memory than
that gang under my spa.....long ago, in my hometown, Miami, I went to
my backyard tool
shed to grab a machete I had in there to hack big weeds with. Opening
the door, I was
face to face with a snarling, glaring Mama Possum standing over her
new babies and daring
the hoomin invader to take her on. The weeds got pretty high in my
yard before I ventured
to look in the shed again, and found it deserted of resident critters.

Oh, I forgot....they hiss loud when they are mad (Mama Possum in
shed).
This is funny because I - through all those years watching the possum
family stroll around the Jacuzzi while I was in it - kept waiting for
them to
hiss at me, but never once did this happen. Perhaps this was some sign
of mutual respect and tolerance.The iguanas, OTOH, would hiss and haul
at my approach to my own backyard, to the safety of their high tree
limb
home way above the scary hoomin's reach (as if! I don't like big
lizards and
now grandkid-sit at a home with a resident leopard gecko).. Life is
strange
and challenging, but the alternative is beyond consideration..

***

Strange and challenging is a good description. I like just about all
critters that have four legs or fewer. I've held a sulfur-crested cockatoo
and an assortment of snakes. I like snakes very much, but I wouldn't mess
with one in the wild, even if I were sure it wasn't poisonous.

Incidentally, and to make this on topic, on my recent trip to Australia, my
friend and I went to an agricultural show, which is somewhat similar to our
county fairs. They had a cat building, which we visited. One of the cats
we saw was a sphinx. It was the first one I'd seen in the flesh, so to
speak. ;-) I've always thought their naked bodies were rather repulsive,
and imagined they'd be unpleasant to touch. I had the opportunity to pet
this one, and was surprised at the silky feel. They have a very fine
coating of extremely soft hair, and it's a pleasure to pet one.

Joy

"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Oct 16, 2:56 pm, "Joy" wrote:
"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 1:37 pm, hopitus wrote:



On Oct 16, 12:40 pm, "Joy" wrote:

"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 11:59 am, "Joy" wrote:

"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in
messagenews:tobjb69va7qeslp6at1h4n4j1louq25ubn@4ax .com...

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and
found
a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out.
Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he
settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more
than
about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known
possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten for
a
week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out,
indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

As in your sig....don't believe everything you *read*! Had a lage but
old early-model
Jacuzzi in backyard of my FL house. It was, natch, in-ground, and in a
space under'
it lived a whole family of opossums. I got to know them quite well and
they lived there
for *years* as I did nothing to harm them. Late a night, after I had
got the Jacuzzi
all warmed up with the heater, I would go out there in near-dark (had
a weak path
solar light) and turn on the spa switch for bubbling massage, and go
on in. More than
once, would open my eyes to see a very fat opossum strolling around
the octagonal
flat edge rail , completely ignoring the hoomin in the bubble water! I
had some fear the
first few years that unwelcome critter would *fall inl* with me, but
those little critters
are very sure-footed nocturnal beings. They got really fearsome-
looking set of teeth
but are not aggressive. I guess they liked it sleeping all day in the
dark under the
spa and its nearby covered machinery.

***

That sounds delightful! My experience with possums is somewhat
limited.

Many years ago, there was a neighborhood cat that would come in
through
the
cat door and eat my cats' food, which was in the kitchen. Sometimes
the
cat
would start a fight with one of my cats. I moved the food from the
kitchen
to the master bath, hoping it would no longer tempt the cat to come
in.
One
night a few days later, I was reading in bed when I heard a very loud
crunching in the master bath. I knew my cats didn't eat that noisily,
so
I
assumed it was the neighbor cat. As I started to get up to chase it
out,
an
animal ran out of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a large rat,
and
was petrified. I later found out it was a possum.

Several days after that, I heard a banging from the kitchen. The cat
door
had tabs you could slide out to lock the door. Sometimes they would
slip,
and it the door were in the right position, either the 'in' or the
'out'
would be locked, but the door could still be used in the other
direction. I
assumed that had happened, and one of my cats was trying to get either
in or
out. When I got out to the kitchen, I found that I was right about the
door, but instead of a cat, it was a possum trying to get out. I
opened
the
door, then walked away from it, and he went out.

Someone in a newsgroup (I don't think it was this one) mentioned that
possums like fruit, so I started putting a small dish of dry cat food,
and a
small amount of cut up fruit in the garage. As far as I know, the
possum
never came in the house. For several days, the food disappeared
regularly.
Then I started finding chewed up fruit, so I stopped putting the food
out.

A few months later, I opened the back door to let Lindy (RB) out (She
wouldn't use the cat door if I were there to open the door for her.).
She
got halfway out the door, glanced to her left, and froze. Since the
washing
machine is just to the left of the door, I assumed her interest was in
something behind it. I got a flashlight, leaned out and looked. There
was
a mother possum with a fairly good-sized one on her back. I started
putting
the food out, and the same thing happened as before.

A year or so later, there was the smell of something dead in my
garage.
After a great deal of searching, the source was found to be a dead
possum
behind some boxes.

That is my total experience with possums, unless you count the time I
held
one at Steve Erwin's Australian Zoo. ;-)

Joy

You *held* a possum??!! Gotta give you a MileHigh Salute for that, my
dead body
would hold one. No, I never, ever attempted to feed the backyard spa
residents, as
yes, they do look rodent-like, I to this day have no idea what they
eat/ate (large family
of iguanas in the monster trees nearby but that's ridiculous as the
possums, fat as
they were (evidently eating good) were much smaller than the huge
iguanas. Now that
you inform me they like fruit, there was a banana tree back there as
well as an avacoda
tree and a mango tree, so I now realize the possums liked the menu.
My Akita would run into one infrequently but ignored them.
Since you mention the possum family you found, brought back really
older memory than
that gang under my spa.....long ago, in my hometown, Miami, I went to
my backyard tool
shed to grab a machete I had in there to hack big weeds with. Opening
the door, I was
face to face with a snarling, glaring Mama Possum standing over her
new babies and daring
the hoomin invader to take her on. The weeds got pretty high in my
yard before I ventured
to look in the shed again, and found it deserted of resident critters.

Oh, I forgot....they hiss loud when they are mad (Mama Possum in
shed).
This is funny because I - through all those years watching the possum
family stroll around the Jacuzzi while I was in it - kept waiting for
them to
hiss at me, but never once did this happen. Perhaps this was some sign
of mutual respect and tolerance.The iguanas, OTOH, would hiss and haul
at my approach to my own backyard, to the safety of their high tree
limb
home way above the scary hoomin's reach (as if! I don't like big
lizards and
now grandkid-sit at a home with a resident leopard gecko).. Life is
strange
and challenging, but the alternative is beyond consideration..

***

Strange and challenging is a good description. I like just about all
critters that have four legs or fewer. I've held a sulfur-crested cockatoo
and an assortment of snakes. I like snakes very much, but I wouldn't mess
with one in the wild, even if I were sure it wasn't poisonous.

Incidentally, and to make this on topic, on my recent trip to Australia,
my
friend and I went to an agricultural show, which is somewhat similar to
our
county fairs. They had a cat building, which we visited. One of the cats
we saw was a sphinx. It was the first one I'd seen in the flesh, so to
speak. ;-) I've always thought their naked bodies were rather repulsive,
and imagined they'd be unpleasant to touch. I had the opportunity to pet
this one, and was surprised at the silky feel. They have a very fine
coating of extremely soft hair, and it's a pleasure to pet one.

Joy

In FL I would always be at the various cat org. sponsored shows with
friends
both exhibiting and visiting like me. I had some exhibitor friends
from all over
the country, knew all the rules and no-no's for visitors, and was
lucky enough
to be invited on the rare times (then) a sphinx was shown in
competition for
judging. Surprising warm, snuggly, and like a swarm, fuzzy peach in
hand.
They are a small size breed, at least the ones I've seen.
As for the wombat, my grand daughter had some video game where her
avatar
was a wombat, so I found it online, only knew it lives in Oz. Both of
us are
surprised at how *cute* it is, like a furry little pig, expected
something that
looked like Tasmanian Devil.
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...otos+of+wombat

***

Yes, wombats are cute. Actually, Tasmanian devils are too, when they aren't
looking ferocious, which they only do when there is food around.

Joy

"hopitus" wrote in message
...
On Oct 16, 3:33 pm, "Joy" wrote:
"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 2:56 pm, "Joy" wrote:



"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 1:37 pm, hopitus wrote:

On Oct 16, 12:40 pm, "Joy" wrote:

"hopitus" wrote in message

...
On Oct 16, 11:59 am, "Joy" wrote:

"Kraut / Larry S." wrote in
messagenews:tobjb69va7qeslp6at1h4n4j1louq25ubn@4ax .com...

Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and
found
a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap
out.
Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a
few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he
settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

I've read that possums don't usually stay in the same place more
than
about
two weeks. This seems to jibe with the fact that when I've known
possums
were around and put fruit out for them, the fruit has been eaten
for
a
week
or two, then either left alone or apparently chewed and spit out,
indicating
some other sort of critter was chewing on it.

Joy

As in your sig....don't believe everything you *read*! Had a lage
but
old early-model
Jacuzzi in backyard of my FL house. It was, natch, in-ground, and in
a
space under'
it lived a whole family of opossums. I got to know them quite well
and
they lived there
for *years* as I did nothing to harm them. Late a night, after I had
got the Jacuzzi
all warmed up with the heater, I would go out there in near-dark
(had
a weak path
solar light) and turn on the spa switch for bubbling massage, and go
on in. More than
once, would open my eyes to see a very fat opossum strolling around
the octagonal
flat edge rail , completely ignoring the hoomin in the bubble water!
I
had some fear the
first few years that unwelcome critter would *fall inl* with me, but
those little critters
are very sure-footed nocturnal beings. They got really fearsome-
looking set of teeth
but are not aggressive. I guess they liked it sleeping all day in
the
dark under the
spa and its nearby covered machinery.

***

That sounds delightful! My experience with possums is somewhat
limited.

Many years ago, there was a neighborhood cat that would come in
through
the
cat door and eat my cats' food, which was in the kitchen. Sometimes
the
cat
would start a fight with one of my cats. I moved the food from the
kitchen
to the master bath, hoping it would no longer tempt the cat to come
in.
One
night a few days later, I was reading in bed when I heard a very
loud
crunching in the master bath. I knew my cats didn't eat that
noisily,
so
I
assumed it was the neighbor cat. As I started to get up to chase it
out,
an
animal ran out of the bathroom. At first I thought it was a large
rat,
and
was petrified. I later found out it was a possum.

Several days after that, I heard a banging from the kitchen. The cat
door
had tabs you could slide out to lock the door. Sometimes they would
slip,
and it the door were in the right position, either the 'in' or the
'out'
would be locked, but the door could still be used in the other
direction. I
assumed that had happened, and one of my cats was trying to get
either
in or
out. When I got out to the kitchen, I found that I was right about
the
door, but instead of a cat, it was a possum trying to get out. I
opened
the
door, then walked away from it, and he went out.

Someone in a newsgroup (I don't think it was this one) mentioned
that
possums like fruit, so I started putting a small dish of dry cat
food,
and a
small amount of cut up fruit in the garage. As far as I know, the
possum
never came in the house. For several days, the food disappeared
regularly.
Then I started finding chewed up fruit, so I stopped putting the
food
out.

A few months later, I opened the back door to let Lindy (RB) out
(She
wouldn't use the cat door if I were there to open the door for
her.).
She
got halfway out the door, glanced to her left, and froze. Since the
washing
machine is just to the left of the door, I assumed her interest was
in
something behind it. I got a flashlight, leaned out and looked.
There
was
a mother possum with a fairly good-sized one on her back. I started
putting
the food out, and the same thing happened as before.

A year or so later, there was the smell of something dead in my
garage.
After a great deal of searching, the source was found to be a dead
possum
behind some boxes.

That is my total experience with possums, unless you count the time
I
held
one at Steve Erwin's Australian Zoo. ;-)

Joy

You *held* a possum??!! Gotta give you a MileHigh Salute for that, my
dead body
would hold one. No, I never, ever attempted to feed the backyard spa
residents, as
yes, they do look rodent-like, I to this day have no idea what they
eat/ate (large family
of iguanas in the monster trees nearby but that's ridiculous as the
possums, fat as
they were (evidently eating good) were much smaller than the huge
iguanas. Now that
you inform me they like fruit, there was a banana tree back there as
well as an avacoda
tree and a mango tree, so I now realize the possums liked the menu.
My Akita would run into one infrequently but ignored them.
Since you mention the possum family you found, brought back really
older memory than
that gang under my spa.....long ago, in my hometown, Miami, I went to
my backyard tool
shed to grab a machete I had in there to hack big weeds with. Opening
the door, I was
face to face with a snarling, glaring Mama Possum standing over her
new babies and daring
the hoomin invader to take her on. The weeds got pretty high in my
yard before I ventured
to look in the shed again, and found it deserted of resident critters.

Oh, I forgot....they hiss loud when they are mad (Mama Possum in
shed).
This is funny because I - through all those years watching the possum
family stroll around the Jacuzzi while I was in it - kept waiting for
them to
hiss at me, but never once did this happen. Perhaps this was some sign
of mutual respect and tolerance.The iguanas, OTOH, would hiss and haul
at my approach to my own backyard, to the safety of their high tree
limb
home way above the scary hoomin's reach (as if! I don't like big
lizards and
now grandkid-sit at a home with a resident leopard gecko).. Life is
strange
and challenging, but the alternative is beyond consideration..

***

Strange and challenging is a good description. I like just about all
critters that have four legs or fewer. I've held a sulfur-crested
cockatoo
and an assortment of snakes. I like snakes very much, but I wouldn't
mess
with one in the wild, even if I were sure it wasn't poisonous.

Incidentally, and to make this on topic, on my recent trip to Australia,
my
friend and I went to an agricultural show, which is somewhat similar to
our
county fairs. They had a cat building, which we visited. One of the cats
we saw was a sphinx. It was the first one I'd seen in the flesh, so to
speak. ;-) I've always thought their naked bodies were rather repulsive,
and imagined they'd be unpleasant to touch. I had the opportunity to pet
this one, and was surprised at the silky feel. They have a very fine
coating of extremely soft hair, and it's a pleasure to pet one.

Joy

In FL I would always be at the various cat org. sponsored shows with
friends
both exhibiting and visiting like me. I had some exhibitor friends
from all over
the country, knew all the rules and no-no's for visitors, and was
lucky enough
to be invited on the rare times (then) a sphinx was shown in
competition for
judging. Surprising warm, snuggly, and like a swarm, fuzzy peach in
hand.
They are a small size breed, at least the ones I've seen.
As for the wombat, my grand daughter had some video game where her
avatar
was a wombat, so I found it online, only knew it lives in Oz. Both of
us are
surprised at how *cute* it is, like a furry little pig, expected
something that
looked like Tasmanian
Devil.http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-...=navclient&gfn...

***

Yes, wombats are cute. Actually, Tasmanian devils are too, when they
aren't
looking ferocious, which they only do when there is food around.

Joy

When I lived in CA in 80's, at the San Mateo zoo I saw my first and
last of this
which appears innocuous enough unless it is in a bad mood. The one I
looked
at on the zoo visit was not in a good mood.
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/cont...als/badger.htm

After that meeting, I had hoped never to see one again, but apparently
they are
not like moles and other burrowing pests that tear up people's lawns,
and don't
run around in urban settings. Mandible as tough to dislocate as any
bulldog's.

***

I've never seen a badger.

There are some wombat and Tasmanian devil photos at the bottom of this
batch:

http://picasaweb.google.com/toasties...19731383938834

Joy

"Kraut / Larry S."
Lately I have seen a small possum (Young) coming and going and found a
tunnel under house through to crawl space so put a live trap out. Got
up this AM and found him in it.

Relocated him to a nice quiet wooded area outside of town with a
stream nearby and it is nice and safe for him (It). Left him a few
potatoes, apples & ear of corn so he has something until he settles
in. He has all day to check out his new home and find a den.

Hope he stays there!!

Purrs for the little possum to find a home and bless your heart for doing
this for him.
Love
Kyla