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Small Cabin Forum / Nature / My possum story
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NMC
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 15:52
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This ancedote didn't happen at the cabin, but in town in a busy neighborhood. (Our community is only 12,000 people, so really not that busy.) Several years ago I talked my wife into "letting me" purchase a used hot tub. It didn't cost much, but by the time I poured a concrete pad for it to sit on and had 220 wireing done, I had a few dollars in it. One cold morning, I was out blowing snow and smelled something dead. I thought this was strange as it was far too cold for anything to be rotting. I narrowed the smell down to the hot tub and sure enough, one corner strap hadn't been snapped securely. We hadn't used the hot tub for a couple of weeks. I opened the lid and the water was black and a pelt was floating at the top. The smell was over powering, but on avery cold day I drained and scrubbed that hot tub. The skull and other large bones were on the bottom and all the small bones were in the filter. My wife was not impressed and never got into it again. I ended up selling it,(With full disclosure), at a very cheap price. The bottom line is that I hate possums.

bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 18:01
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I sympathize with your predicament but I have to say that I think possums are cute.

rmak
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 19:38
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I like them better than raccoons. They cause less mischief and kind of keep to themselves. My wife thinks they are gross.

cabingal3
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 19:39
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Oh wow! Hee hee! That's so horrible! I understand not wanting to get in it ever again but what a great way to get the pelt from an animal!
Gosh they are a homely creature!
Thanks for the great story!

GreatOutdoors
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 21:19
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About 3 months ago I had a dead possum in my hot-tub. Actually two of them - they crawled underneath (between the jacket liner and hot tub) and proceeded to die.

I started smelling something - catching a whiff here and there & I started looking for the source of the smell. They were ~80% decomposed and I had to remove my hot tub, tear the liner off (went to the trash), and scrape their carcasses off the concrete pad. I pressure washed the hot tub and there's no remaining smell so I've kept it.

I too hate possums...

bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 22:04
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Ok so they hiss at you if you get close, and their normal state of being resembles a severe skin disease, they smell and eat carrion. Still, they have a subtle appeal, you have to admit.

cabingal3
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 22:08
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We had this horrible smell in our living rm.of our mobile home.
I had forgotten this till now.
Oh it was nasty.
So me and Gary o went to check it out.
He found the possum had climbed under the house in the insulation and died there.so gross!

Gary O
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 22:27 - Edited by: Gary O
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Quoting: bldginsp
Ok so they hiss at you if you get close, and their normal state of being resembles a severe skin disease, they smell and eat carrion. Still, they have a subtle appeal, you have to admit.

hilarious

perhaps Pogo is the cause of endearment....

Yeah, in a less than finer financial moment, we paid cash for a very used mobile home in a very used court.
Seemed the thing to do at the time.
No real mortgage payment.
Put away some cash.

heh

Had to put a new roof on and darn near rewire and replumb the place (the lights would go real bright on one end of the place while they'd flicker on the other, and something horrific kept backing up into the 'garden tub'....aaand it wasn't compost)

The capper; one horribly decomposed opossum tucked into the insulation in the crawl space.

.....and to think cabi thought it was my favorite, comfiest, around the place shoes, of which, incidentally, were also horribly decomposed.

Just
Member
# Posted: 5 May 2015 23:25
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Possums do have a nice winter coat in the north .But be prepared to work for that coat , they are the toughest thing I have ever skinned .

buckybuck
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2015 07:26
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My wife felt sorry for the neighborhood stray cat over the winter, and fixed up a nice blankey basket for it in the garage and kept the garage door cracked open so it could come in at night. Here's what I found sleeping in the cat's bed one morning:
Possum
Possum


SantanaWoods
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2015 09:19
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Quoting: NMC
The bottom line is that I hate possums.


In ancient Roman times noblemen who were tired of life would commit suicide by opening their wrist veins sitting in a tub (after a glass of wine).

Who knows, that possum may have been Cesar in his previous life.

smallworks
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2015 09:29
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Sweet.
We had a cat door in the kitchen wall leading to our porch. Around 3am I hear noise, traipse downstairs and startle a big fat raccoon stuck in it. Switched on the light, we both went aaahhh... and he backed out. Two days later I caught him running around the kitchen.
Naturally, we blocked it off. Possums over raccoons any day. I feel sorry for the little guy in the hot tub. Keep the skull.

bldginsp
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2015 13:49
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Instructions for cleaning animal sculls:

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=hunting.skull

hattie
Member
# Posted: 6 May 2015 18:41
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Quoting: buckybuck
Here's what I found sleeping in the cat's bed one morning:


HAHAHAHA.....Too funny!!!

I don't think we have possums where we live - good thing cuz we have a hot tub.

trollbridge
Member
# Posted: 7 May 2015 10:13
Reply 


Ick, ick, ick.....but funny thread!!!

I had a cat that died during the winter, a backyard grave could only be chiseled so deep into the frozen ground, but thought it would suffice A day after the burial I happen to glance out the bedroom window and what I saw horrified me....there hovered over "Katy", was a possum pulling the innards out my resting cat! Gross and so, so very wrong! Lol

I hate possums too!

smallworks
Member
# Posted: 7 May 2015 21:33
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a friend of mine had the misfortune of having several of her cats die during the winter, so she put them in her freezer until a proper burial could be conducted. i believe she labeled them..
here's an image of part of my skull collection
skulls.jpg
skulls.jpg


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