Factoid about Possums (or Opossum if you prefer):
They have the largest number of teeth of all mammals. 50! All needle sharp. Contrary to popular belief they do not "play dead" when a predator approaches and can (and will) bite the hand that feeds them.

We had a neighbor in North Carolina that used to keep his cat food bowls outside of the house. One of his cats went missing. One night he heard the bowl moving arouns outside and thought it was his cat. Being nearsighted he exited the house and poured more food into the bowl (the poor thing must be hungry after being gone so long ya know?). He then reached down and began petting the cat. It had very stringy hair where once it had luxurious fur. Poor cat he thought, must have been a terrible time wherever you went. Then he got to the naked, rasp-like tail with the crook in the end and decided to turn on the light to get a better look at his poor cat's problems.

He'd been petting the biggest possum in our neighborhood. The catfood bowls came inside in the morning.
Never did find the damn cat!