Well that may explain an interaction between a possum and my sisters dog a few years ago. When I lived with my sister I’d take their mastiff out on her leash and walk her around their property while I had a smoke. We’d do this all times of day and night.
I’d drop the leash if we were in the backyard since it was fenced on two sides and only one gate to get into the front, which I could keep an eye on while she explored. One night, it had to have been about midnight, she was obsessed with this one spot in the tall grass, like, would not leave this spot. So after about five minutes I went to grab her, and she’s fighting me, nose buried in this spot. I finally turn my flashlight on and walk over, and there’s a possum curled up in the tall grass. And she’s licking it…
I pull her away, since, I’m sure dogs shouldn’t be licking wild animals, especially ones that are dead, right? Like, only a dead possum would let another animal lick it, right? Wrong. As I’m looking at it to make sure she didn’t lick up any maggots or was eating any rotten meat, it turned it’s head towards me, eyes squinting, like, “Do you mind? I was having the most wonderful dream of a bath.” It wasn’t playing possum, I’ve seen them do that, it was literally just curled up in grass, sleeping, while a dog 6X its size was licking it head to toe.
I mean my main question is wtf is your dog doing?
One researcher decided to dissect dead opossums’ stomachs and analyze the contents. First off, they don’t eat ticks like people assume. Secondly, she found things like broken glass and a partially undigested shrew. Source.
In conclusion, opossums are metal.
Hang on, the description was about possums, but the title is in an opossum group, and your comment is about an opossum.
I’m going to have actually look up whether it’s opossums or possums that have a smooth brain.
That’s a very good point. I notice a lot of people will say “possum” when they are talking about opossums. So please report the results of your research, and I will update this accordingly!
They are brutally strong. My dog as a puppy chased everything that was small in my backyard. He brought me squirrels, birds and one night a possum. I have had to put some things out of their misery. Which sucks, but he’s a dog. So he brought me a possum and rather that see it suffer I knocked it in the head with a bat. Hard. I went out the next morning to clean it up and wrap it in a trash bag so it wouldn’t smell all week until trash day.
The thing was gone. No trace. I don’t know how it survived. But ever since then I respected those things on a whole new level.
You probably gave it severe brain damage though. Felt bad reading this since I love animals…
It’s not something I wanted to do. But I felt it was better than letting it suffer like other animals he has brought me in the past. Now he’s 5 and doesn’t catch as much. In fact last time he got caught on the fence and a squirrel bopped him.
Yeah OP, so insensitive. If you really loved animals you would have decapitated it to be sure. /s
Maybe he managed to beat a few ridges into it?
Something ate a dead possum.
I don’t think so. Unless it was another possum. My backyard isn’t gigantic. But it’s small enough to hear anything else. And I live in the suburbs. It’s not like there are bears or anything.
It’s possums all the way down.
the ‘food chain’ is really mostly possum
Well that just sounds im-possum-bul. I’ll see myself out.
For Australians: they mean American opossums, not Australian possums. Our cute little marsupial friends have appropriately wrinkly brains, thank goodness.
You’ve got eucalyptus eating smoothies
