I've been told that since possums don't see well, the best way to scare them off is to bend down to their level and hiss at them. Haven't tried it myself. Not likely to.

Those scare the bajeesus out of me. It reminds me of one time we were walking home hand in hand one evening, all happy and my husband said 'aah its a ...' and I screamed, how could you possibly find those things cute, they are absolutely gross. I think its that big tail. Ick.

Should I mention that Mercury is in retrograde again? Or not?

I suppose because of your fear of possums, that this means that you will not come to visit me at the house in the country?

And good grief, hide the rum from me, I can't even spell Annie.

While screaming hysterically while running away is certainly my approved method of dealing with such an event, I want to give you extra credit for (a) not falling AND (b) not dropping food.

A story for you:

When I was a kid, we owned a miniature poodle. My dad would pretend to be sensitive about it when people went "oh, a poodle," and he'd put on the deep man voice and say "you know, poodles were originally bred as hunting dogs."

So one day we were out in the yard, and Ronette the poodle was jumping and sniffing excitedly at one of the bushes that lined the back of our property. I went up to see what she'd found, thinking it was maybe a bird's nest... but when I parted the branches and looked inside there was a possum staring back at me, mouth wide open all NYAAAAAGH.

Of course, I did what anyone would do: turned back, put my hands on my hips, and bellowed "HEY MAW! RONETTE DONE TREED AN O-POSSUM!"

It was one of the proudest moments of my life. Such a good dog. :)

Those things are evil looking. I hate their skinny hairy tails and pointed teeth. And they hiss at you.

Thanks, another great story with many textures and layers. So very entertaining. I had no idea that I didn't even know what a possum looked like until I read your post. How did that happen? I think I had some kind of badger/sloth hybrid pictured in my little brain. So I googled it. Not as vile as rats, not as cool as bats, but certainly not cute like those damn bunnies that eat my garden.
Thanks for the reminder about the joys of grease traps. Yuck. Whenever well-meaning but ill-informed friends ask me why I don't open a restaurant (you know, because everyone who doesn't suck at cooking should definitely have their own restaurant), I tell them about the joys of ownership: An almost 100% chance of losing your investment, 80 hour work weeks,and the certainty of the grease trap overflowing on the night the dishwasher doesn't show up for work. Sounds enticing indeed. But I'm so grateful for you hardy souls that stick with it, because good restaurants are a wonderful thing.

I got scared by a possum once. It had decided to live in my dog's house. She wouldn't go in there and it was cold out so I took the roof off and got a broom to try to push it out. It really hissed at me and I thought it was going to attack! It really stunk too.

I deffinitely wouldn't have "played possum" either. They are mean little things. We had a pregnant one living under our deck in the house I grew up in...even the babies are nasty. I love your blog. You make me laugh so hard!!!

Oh please, do tell about the stalking cat.

We don't get possums here in the big city. Rats, yes. Pigeons, yes. Hawks that eat the rats and pigeons, yesss!

Hi,
Plenty of possums in these parts. Most want nothing to do with people, but they do look scary. They have been around since right after the dinosaurs became extinct and do look the part.

Ryan