Now, before you run away gagging…let me just say that possum (or opossum to some of you) stew is one of the finer things in life. NOT! Ha. Gotcha! I can’t say that I’ve actually ever had possum stew, nor would I ever choose to do so. But here’s a good story and I had to lead up to it somehow…
The other evening whilst sitting on the couch I noticed a faint scratching noise that sounded like it was coming from the front windows in my living room. As I turned the volume down on the tv, sure enough, it WAS a scratching sound coming from underneath the windows. I looked outside but couldn’t see anything rustling in the bushes. I knocked on the window. Still nothing. So, because I am a big chicken and thought that it surely must be rat in my cellar (even though I have NEVER had a rat in my cellar), I went to bed without looking in the basement.
The next afternoon I heard the scratching again and because it was daylight, and knew the boogie monster wouldn’t get me if I went into the cellar at this time of day, I headed down with a flashlight. I went straight to where I had heard the noise the night before. You see, I have a set of basement windows right underneath the living room windows. These windows are ancient, dirty as hell and double paned. Not the double-paned as in the modern, two pieces of glass that are millimeters apart and make up one window – but two separate windows that have approximately 3-1/2″ of space between them.
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Something gray…and hairy…and breathing! Gah! I almost ran away screaming but my curiosity got the best of me. I approached slowly with the flashlight and as I got closer I realized it was a baby possum. Phew! I could barely see in the widows as they are covered in dirt. Very clever how they installed them so there is absolutely NO way to clean them. Anyway, as I inspected further I could see that next to the little possum was what used to be his/her sibling. Splayed out. Dead. With flies crawling all over it.
I ran back upstairs fretting about what to do. My child got wind of my anxiousness and asked what was wrong. I had to tell her. And then she started crying, insisting that we had to “SAVE” him “NOW”. Great.
I grabbed a hammer and headed outside to see if I could somehow break the window open without killing the poor thing. No luck. That glass would not budge. I couldn’t really take a good whack at it as I was afraid the hammer would end up in the possum’s skull. So, I called my Dad and he came to the rescue with his expert glass-breaking technique. We coaxed the little fella out with cat food. It leaned out of the window just enough to gobble up the food. I’m sure it wouldn’t move any further because we were all standing around gawking at it. My child, of course, thought it was cute and wanted to keep it. It started to show its teeth when we moved closer. My first inclination was to whack it with something. Nice. I just save the poor, starving animal and now I want to kill it.
I have no idea how long it had been inbetween the windows. Long enough for two of his siblings to die. Yes, two! After he climbed out we saw that there was another dead baby – he had been sitting on it. Ick. So, now I have a broken basement window full of dead stank. I wonder how long it will take for the bodies to disintegrate, because I sure as hell am not going to touch that stuff! Can I interest anyone in some possum carcass for stew??
Two Lazy Dogs 
ICK! OOO!! ICK!!
That last paragraph did me in!! Dead stank!!
I know there is a dead mouse located somewhere in my pantry because I can smell a faint whiff of “dead skank” every time I go in there.
Funny story: When we first moved here from the city my (now)ex-husband was feeding some feral cats on our front porch. One rainy night as he went to go outside he quickly jumped back inside and slammed the door. He said “There is the biggest rat out there I have ever seen!”
It was a wet possum eating the cat food!
I laughed at him for days…damn silly Brooklyn boy!
It is quite nasty. I keep checking on the , like it will magically go away. Looks like some other critter has tried to drag one of the carcasses out. Eeeew. I keep hoping one of the giant crows in the neighborhood will scoop them up and out!!
Haha…on the big rat!
I don’t know whether to say Aww b/c the poor little thing was trapped or Eww b/c of the smelly, dead animals. Here’s to hoping something takes the carcasses away soon!
Oh noes! Poor dead things, I’d feel bad if I wasn’t so grossed out on your behalf. No way I’d touch those things either. I think something may have died in the walls of my new house cause it’s starting to reek a bit. Good thing I’m just renting a room in the place and it’s not my duty to fish out whatever it is – I’ll just use lots of incense 😛
come back…where are you ???
Ew, ew, ew!!! I don’t envy you those dead opossum bodies. Nasty stuff! We had a opossum that kept coming to our back porch for cat food a few months ago and I got some pics of it (posted on my photo blog). They are certainly not the cutest creatures.
An aside… how is your dog biscuit biz going? After making them for YEARS for my pooches, I finally decided to start selling them. It’s touch and go. I have a few stalwart local customers, and I’ve picked up a few via my website (www.thelazygranch.com). But I can see how something like this has the potential to overtake your life. Just wondered how you dealt with it! 🙂
~Susan
Hi Susan,
Thanks for asking about the dog biscuit biz. Actually, I’ve put that on hold for the winter. I’ve had just a few orders over the past few months and you are right – it certainly CAN take over your life. I’ve decided to concentrate on the biscuit biz in the summer – for my Farmers Market customers – otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll burn out and never want to see another dog biscuit!
My dogs aren’t thrilled that they’re not getting Mom’s homemade treats but they seem to be quite happy with the new organic chicken jerky treats I found.
My fur-crew sure are happy for the overflow of dog treats. I’ll have to look into farmer’s markets for the spring/summer here in KS. That might be a better venue. Hope you’re having a nice weekend. 🙂
Possum heh. This post is a long time from the last comment, but being from the south, I’d say as long as they don’t smell. . .
Oh wow. This is so gross. Very troubling.
I used to keep cat food on the back deck and as expected found I was feeding a family of possums. So I no longer leave food on the deck. I can’t afford to feed God knows how many of them. They do carry disease and have nasty looking teeth and eat most anything decent OR rotting. To me they rank right there with bussards.
Oh, that’s gross. Yes, sadly in the animal world males often kill–and even eat their offspring!
Possums are so ugly though that they’re kind of cute!
I once caught a mother possum in a live trap, and took her home as a pet (I didn’t know she was a mother, until I noticed the babies suckling in her pouch). The babies outgrew the teat, and they were quite adorable–but I couldn’t get the mother or the babies to eat well enough in captivity–so I returned her and her babies to the woods where I’d caught her. And the babies followed the mother away, as ducklings would!