BS: All pussims are my friends

Subject: All pussims are my friends
From: GUEST,Beefsteak Charlieboy
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:43 PM

Pussims,possums,whatever I love em all...

Beefsteak CharlieBoy

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Troll
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 10:48 PM

Whats not to love?

troll

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Brendy
Date: 17 Feb 00 - 11:23 PM

I admire your magnanimity, Charles old stick, and your obvious lack of prejudice in these matters.
Another victory for humanity.
B.

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 06:42 PM

Charles, get out more, meet other humans, talk to creatures that have opposable thumbs......

Actually, can I come as well? I've just put the cat food in the sink and the empty tin back in the fridge.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 08:00 PM

Love they little mousies,

Mousies what I love to eat.

Bite they tiny heads off,

Nibble on they tiny feet.

God bless the whole food chain.

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Gary T
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 10:54 PM

Well, you know, Liz, opossums do have opposable "thumbs" on their hind legs. Of course I wonder if Beefsteak Chas loves them platonically, romantically, zoologically, gastronomically....

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Troll
Date: 18 Feb 00 - 11:06 PM

Chas. You put that possum down! You don't know WHERE it's been!

troll (recalling places that I have seen possums come out of)

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Feb 00 - 12:02 AM

Somebody go to Spaw's possum thread and put a link there, to here! He's all sicked up and may be too weak to find this sidebar!

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Amos
Date: 19 Feb 00 - 12:04 AM

Found an angry possum one night clinging to the inside of a second story balcony screen in a condo we used to live in. He'd snuck in from the patio, climbed the stairs like a theif in the night and walked through our bedroom at 2:00 in the morning...hmmph! Middle of the night, heard this little scrabbling, pulled back a drape and this mad possum was hissing at me! Jumped back, dropped the drape, went an' got a flashlight and a broom, came tiptoeing back in and woke up my wife, unintentionally, who decided to get in on the fun too. This lump, the possum, was high in the middle of the screen door slider, with the drape blocking it from sight. Still dunno how it got in.

Well, we delicately slid the door open a foot without disturbing his grip, and then I used the broom to sorta fudge him down the screen and along the floor until he was positioned right. Then I upped with my broom and skwurled him right outta that screen door and into the bushes on the ground below. Needless to say he was indignant, but I don't think he was hurt and we were doing a little victory dance over this intruder in the night...

If only I had known then what I know now...I dunno, I mighta used a bat...

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Feb 00 - 12:23 AM

Praise! I used to have that on a kitchen towel with the Kliban cat strumming a banjo and singing that!

My friend used to work at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island and was the resident "Orphan Possum Momma", even though she was in marketing and group sales. She just has a heart of gold and can't resist little critters. Whenever a real mother possum was accidentally run over and whomever found babies, she would take them home and nurture them until they could be let loose in the wild.

She had to go out of town once so we "possum-sat" for her. My youngest daughter kept it away from the cats in her room and fed it every couple of hours. Young ones are cute and cuddly. He liked to snuggle around the back of her neck, hidden by her hair. Guess it just proves that everything can be cute...when it's a young'un!

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Feb 00 - 10:47 AM

No. Not everything when it is young is cute. Ever seen a baby owl? There is a creature only a mother could love.

God, are they UGLY!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: All pussims are my friends
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Feb 00 - 11:05 AM

RATS!

k/k,

You didn't USE the towel and throw it out when it got old, didja????

I had forgotten all about this, but I do have an unfortunate possum story to share. Remember, I was just a witness... sort of...

I was living in a pretty nice semi-urban neighorhood outside Chicago, you know, kind of Boston-ish, brownstones, etc. One day neighbors moved in. They were a nice Irish couple, just come stateside.

Our building was pretty vermin-free as these things go, but one warm fall led to a very cold winter and some of the local critters tried to move in anywhere a crack would let them indoors. I got the mice, and others got other critters, etc. We all had cats and this was not a big deal, OK? We weren't infested, and I never saw a rat the four years I lived there, anywhere in the area.

Well John and Iva were completely freaked out. Car alarms going off would make them pee their pants. In fact they would dash down to check their own car, safe in a locked garage, every time, and I would hear them bootling down the back stair several times each night. This would always wake me up, BTW.

One night there was a commotion outside the back where we shared a common stairway and little patio. I went to see who was being murdered. There was John, swinging down a flat shovel with all his might, muscles a-bulge, flattening whatever lay below the onslaught. Wanting no part of this, I stayed indoors. You know sometimes you can help people find their way and sometimes you have to let them find it themselves! He seemed to be doing OK, whatever he was doing…

The next morning Iva proudly shared how John had done his part for the neighbors, me especially, by eliminating the biggest rat he had ever seen. "They're so big here!!" she breathed, awestruck and disgusted and frightened all at the same time.

God forgive me, I never told them the critter I found in that day's trash was a mere lowly possum. I didn't want to make them feel foolish, and could not figure out (at that young age) how to tell them gracefully. And John was kind enough to cap off a burst steam radiator for me one night too. I imagine they went to bed every night thinking the rustling of the trees was more big American rats trying to chew their way in. They finally moved on, and to this day probably tell God-only-knows what kind of stories about awful America.