Backyard Wildlife – The Gentle Possum

I have some funny tales to share about our backyard possum. And if you read the whole blog, you’ll find answers to often asked questions like: Do possums have rabies? Do possums bite? Will possums attack cats? Will possums attack you? Do possums really play dead?

And last but not least, how do you pronounce Opossum? Answer: the O is silent, so we’ll skip it.

My First Introduction To A Backyard Possum

A couple years back, a grown possum began visiting our back yard to scrounge for food. It was during one of these visits that I discovered possums are gentle. Here’s the story:

We have a cat who has been relegated to living in the backyard (ten years of relieving herself all over our house did the trick). She is a scaredy cat and never leaves the grounds. At night, I lock her in a large, fixed-up cage to keep her safe and warm.

One night I went to get my cat’s cage ready for the night. I was surprised to hear her in there already, so I crouched down in the darkness and spoke to her.

“Hi Whiskers! You’ve already gone to bed?” I reached in and touched her surprisingly scrawny fur.

“Growl . . .”

“That’s not Whiskers!”

Quickly I withdrew my hand and went inside the house to grab a flashlight. I called my family outside, and we looked as the light shone on the large possum inside the cage. My son said, “That boy is mad!” But I said, “No, he’s scared and actually really nice. He could have bit me, but all he did was growl.”

Since that time, I have been an outspoken friend of possums.

The Tale of Baby Possum

One night a baby possum showed up on our backdoor step and started eating from the cat’s food dish. The baby was so small, it could have curled up inside the bowl. It ate steadily while Whiskers sat nearby and watched. Somehow, our cats (we have an indoor one too) seem to know that possums are not good to hunt, even when they are small. I suspect they have a musky odor that makes them seem unpalatable, because when possums are really frightened for their life, they will “play-dead” (I read it’s a chemical reaction to intense fear) and emit a smell of rotting flesh. Yuck!

I named our visiting baby possum, Baby Possum, because there were actually two babies that regularly came to our backyard and I couldn’t tell them apart! When the babies got bigger, I changed their names to Possum. Clever and original, I know.

The next night, there were two baby possums, and one night there were three! They were all the same size, with no mother in sight. That’s because once the babies are fully weaned, around three to four months, they are on their own. I really enjoyed watching Baby Possum(s) make its evening visit, and purposely left out healthy food for it, like nuts and fruit. Possums eat anything, including nasty things like snails, slugs, and rats! But I have found that they don’t like vegetables much. Whenever I’ve put veggie scraps out at night, they are always there the next morning.

Sometimes I sat on the back doorstep and watched as Baby Possum sniffed around for food, eating practically at my feet while my cats and I watched. As long as we were quiet and still, Baby Possum wasn’t concerned about us. The most she ever did was hiss at Whiskers if she looked up from the ground to see her standing near (do possums have poor eye sight?)

One night a funny thing happened. I put Whiskers in her cage and closed her in by dropping the cage cover. I heard her give a little mew – just different enough to call me back. I opened the cage and out she jumped. I didn’t see anything, so I got a flashlight and reached in to lift up her soft bed that’s designed to look like a little Christmas house. I saw a tail hanging from the back side. Pulling out the house, I saw Baby Possum clinging to the back. Good thing I listened to my cat and double-checked her cage!

It was then I decided that I better not feed Whiskers in her cage, unless I was locking her in for the night. I should also remember to carry a light.

Possum’s Adventure

The nights continued and Baby Possum grew into Possum. Two possums rarely came at the same time, but when they did, I could see that one was bigger than the other. They liked to shelter under our little deck or climb up and down our trees.

One evening I placed Whisker’s food bowl inside her cage and called her over. She jumped right in and began eating. I didn’t have a light with me, but all seemed well. I locked her in for the night and dropped the cover. The next morning, I went to the cage and Whiskers gave a big meow. I lifted the cover, opened the cage door, and out she bolted.

The inside of the cage was topsy-turvy: spilled food, scattered kitty litter, and an upside down house-bed.

Uh-oh.

I reached in and turned over the house-bed. It was soaked with urine and inside was Possum! It was a bit hard to lift the bed out of the cage, but I managed. When I put the bed down, Possum would not come out! She didn’t growl or play dead, but she was clearly scared. I backed away and called to Possum to come out. Finally she did, and off she waddled to hide under the deck. She didn’t show any evidence of being hurt.

There was no sign of a fight inside the cage, just panic, and no injuries on my cat. So the two of them had spent the night together–likely having the bejeebers scared out of them–but they had left each other alone! How awesome is that.

So that’s how I know possums are gentle. Possums never attack you, unless you attack them. Possums want to be left alone.

If A Possum Comes To Your Backyard

If you are lucky enough to have a possum visit your yard, please be kind to it. Don’t harass it and don’t be scared. Possums are highly resistant to rabies, and they’ll help keep your yard clean of ticks (!), beetles, snails, mice, rats, fallen fruit, and carrion. They are omnivores and eat just about anything they can find. By the way, PLEASE don’t leave out snail poison or poison your rats – you might inadvertently poison a possum (or other critter) that eats the snail or rodents.

One more thing about possums, they are North America’s only marsupial. New-born babies must journey up the mother’s fur to reach the inside of her pouch. They then attach themselves to a teat and nurse. There are usually less teats (around 13) than babies (up to 20), so the last ones to arrive, sadly won’t survive. At about two months, the babies will crawl out of the pouch and start hitching rides on their mother’s back. (I would LOVE to see that.) They are weaned and independent by four months old.

If you have a possum tale, I’d like to hear it. Please leave your story in the comments and tell me how you feel about these amazing creatures.

I’ll leave you with a short video of another time when Possum ventured inside Whisker’s cage. Luckily she didn’t stay there!

For more information on possums, you can check out two national societies:

The National Opossum Society  and the Opossum Society of the United States.