I went out into my backyard Friday night with the dog. She did her business and was sniffing around when she started barking at something I couldn't quite see. So I went over to where she was, thinking there was another cat in the yard. Lo and behold! I saw a big ol' possum by the A/C unit!!

I got between the animal and my dog- did you know Chihuahuas are fearless? Amazingly, she wasn't phazed by this animal in the least... anyway, I got er away from the possum and went and grabbed one of these

(mine has a longer handle on it)

to shoo the possum away. He made no real attempt to run (do possums run?) so I thought he might be rabid... so I knocked him in the head and dropped him like a toilet seat! I then put the dog in the house and went back out to make sure the thing was dead... so I whacked it again, only this time blood spattered. Pretty gross, but at least I knew it was dead.

So, what did I discover? Well, after I found the number to animal control, I discovered that they won't come to your house and pick up dead animals. I really thought that was their job. I mean, I've seen the trucks stop and pick up unfortunate dogs that have been run over, why not a dead possum in my backyard? Well, needless to say, I wasn't going to follow the woman's advice that answered the phone when I called. She said I would have to bag it up and put it by the curb. Like trash. All weekend. Uhh, no. I got rid of it, but eeeewwwwwww!!

So, the moral of the story is, if you're in Virginia Beach and have an animal in your backyard, don't kill it. Just trap it and release it somewhere else.

 

Yup. . . in the Animal Control parking lot!

 

Darn Stu, if I was closer I would have taken that off your hands. Been a while since I had opossum.

 

Sad but true. It's the same here. If you kill it on your property, our ACO won't touch it. By ordinance, he is only responsible for removing carcasses from public property such as roadways, etc. He will go out and set traps on private property at an owner's request though. Once caught, the varmints are released elsewhere.

 

I think your answer is right here...

Don't call that you killed one, just call that there's a dead one in the road in front of your house...

Jason

 

I was thinking the same thing!!!

 

Don't forget to run over it a few times with your truck so it looks right.

 

Better yet, if you have a neighbor you don't like............

 

I'll keep that in mind for the next one that comes along. I wish it had run away, I hear those things are pretty good for eating a lot of bugs and stuff, no?

I actually saw one a couple of months ago. Chances are it was the same one. I stepped out the back door and it was right by the patio. I, being barefoot and in sweat pants, was too shocked to do anything but grab the nearest thing which was a maul leaning against the house and chucked it at the critter as he scampered off. I probably missed him by a good three feet, but he was leaving, so I didn't bother with him. This time, he didn't seem like he wanted to leave. Oh well.

 

You already have a shovel! Bury the GD thing!

Our sanitation dept handles carcasses. AC handles live stuff.:

 

That would require work, Steve. Geez...


Seriously, though, my yard has a lot of tree roots in it, and carrying the carcass off to bury it wasn't really an option. Suffice it to say that there's a bunch of drainage lakes around here (and it was dark outside).

 

Sounds good to me.......Carp and catfish have to eat too.

 

You might want to look around to see if there is a little nest somewhere with more of them.

We had Shelties for a long time, and one night one of them was mixing it up with a possum. I went out there and got the dog. Then I was going to pick up the possum and bury it, but my wife said "just wait".

When I went out later, it was gone. They really do play possum. Good thing I didn't reach for it, they're small, but they've got teeth.

 

lol This is too funny fellas seriously all this (ta do) over a possum. try this on for size. when me and the wrecker driver went out to dayton to get my 87 F150 I popped the hood to see a huge possum grinning at me. SO having dealt with them and knowing their general personality and behavior I poked at him until he quite playing possum and appeared to leave via under the firewall. Well 40 miles at 65MPH we arrived at the house with the truck and at this point the guy asks me to check to see if the possum had really left. Well open the hood and the Possum again was in it's massive nest grinning at me,and had apparently wedged it'self between the transmission and the transmission tunnel, SO this time I poked it made it turn around and head back to it's spot and upon turning around I grabbed the Fxxker by it's tail yanked it outta the engine compartment and tossed it in the yard to which it promptly got up and left on it's own. As for having offed the one you offed for future reference killing them isn't really necessary just makem play possum and scoopem up with the shovel and dump them outside your yard they won't move until they think they're safe and your no longer a threat it wasn't rabid as I found out possums don't get rabies. it was terrified it was going to be hurt which apparently unfortunately for it, it was right.

 

Possums don't get rabies? Or Can't get rabies? That's news to me, if it's true. I'll have to look into that. Like I said earlier, I know they have their purpose, but I didn't want my little dog to get bitten by an irate rodent.

All in all, I'd have to say that we (people) have to accept much of the responsibility of these animals invading our habitats. After all, we took over theirs a long time ago and they really don't have a choice. I've seen raccoons outside my wife's office, and of course we have ducks everywhere around here (I hate them, too. They know that they can walk across the road and take their time holding up traffic). Someone a long time ago had the terrific idea that ducks would make Va Beach a much nicer place to live. Now they're more of a nuisance. Can't eat them, they've been living in disgusting waterways. Geese, too, are disgusting animals- and mean! Besides, the geese leave piles of poop you wouldn't believe! Like a medium-sized dog.