I Now Know Why You Don’t Typically See Baby Possums On Cute Overload

by John Hawkins | May 14, 2011 6:53 pm

So, I had taken my dog outside and he’s EXCITED. I mean, excited even for him — and this is a dog who gets so happy he almost passes out when he sees me in the morning or gets to go for a walk.

I figured he caught wind of a cat.

Close, but not quite.

Actually, it was a baby Possum. Immediately, he ran up on it and sadly, baby Possums appear ponderously slow, because it looked like it was casually trying to lope away from a ravenous Jack Russell mix twice its size.

That’s when something kind of country cool happened; The Possum fell over on its side, curled up, and stopped moving. I’d always heard Possums played dead, but I’d never seen it in action.

[1]
If this picture looks like it’s taken from just 3 inches away, that’s because it is. You can get close, prod the Possum with your foot, turn it over, whatever. It ain’t moving until it thinks its safe.

At that point, I was a little curious to see what Patton would do. I mean, after all this is the Possum’s defense mechanism. Would Patton really go, “Yuck, it’s dead. Let me move on?”

Not quite.

Once he got close enough, he promptly picked the Possum up and started to proudly walk off with it.

After chastising the dog into dropping the Possum (he never does that with Kittens, I swear), I took him inside, got the camera, took a snap, and then waited to see if the Possum was all right. If it hadn’t been all right, I’m not sure what I could have done about it other than shoot it, but I still wanted to check.

It seemed fine (and it was much cuter when it looked alive), but I got careless and missed the pic.

Still, I did at least capture a picture of Patton only moments after he almost got to eat Possum.

[2]
Possums taste DELICIOUS! Ask me how I know!

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/possum2.jpg
  2. [Image]: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/pattoneyes1.jpg

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