Playing (O)Possum

Last weekend, my daughter watched The Mitchells vs The Machines at our neighbors’ house. The next morning, before she’d even had breakfast, she turned it on so I could watch it with her. I’m glad she did. It was really funny.

That said, there was a running gag in the movie about possums with stereotypical (and incorrect) ideas about them attacking people and carrying rabies. I’m not exactly an animal rights activist, but I do have to say that possums get a bad rap much of the time.

A few years ago, my son and I went to a wildlife sanctuary with his Cub Scout group. The sanctuary had various animals on site with injuries that the folks there treated so that the animals could get back to doing whatever it is that animals do. There were a handful of creatures there that, for any number of reasons, were permanent residents of the sanctuary. Their injuries were so bad that if they were left in the wild, they wouldn’t be able to survive for long. One of these permanent residents was a possum, and they had it out for the kids (and adults) to pet.

The kids were all, “Oooh, cool!”

And the adults were mostly, “Eww!”

I grew up out in the country and had a few run ins with possums. They always showed their teeth and hissed at me, so I kept my distance and, in turn, developed my own dislike of the ugly little beasts.

The nice lady at the wildlife sanctuary, in just a matter of minutes, took away all of my reasons for disliking possums.

• First off, possums are native to the Australia/New Zealand region. What we have in North America is actually an opossum. The opossum is the only marsupial native to North America.
• Opossums typically won’t bite humans. (Notice I said “typically.” Test this at your own risk.) They’re too scared. They show their teeth and hiss in hopes that we will leave them alone. (Worked for me!) If you do get close enough, they actually pass out involuntarily, start foaming at the mouth, and emit a foul odor. In other words, they “play possum” so that potential predators will lose interest and leave them alone.
• Opossums only carry rabies in very rare instances. Their body temperature is too low for rabies to live in them.
• If you have a problem with snakes and other small rodents around your house, opossums are good to have around. They are immune to the venom of copperheads and rattlesnakes.

While she was changing my outlook about opossums, the lady at the wildlife sanctuary told us that this particular animal had bad hips and could not walk on its own. If they released it, the opossum would be easy prey for a hawk or an owl. Over time the opossum had gotten used to being handled and touched by people so it wouldn’t hiss at us or play possum.

I found myself, semi-unconsciously, walking over to pet the foul looking little opossum…and I’m glad I did. It was almost pleasant.

I suppose there are all sorts of morals here, but the point I’m trying to make is don’t believe everything you see in cartoon movies. Some of it may be fake.

Except the part where the Earth is attacked by evil robots…that may still happen someday.