What can you do with a Virginia possum?
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MossRoad
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I'd first suspect distemper, not rabies. We see it in raccoons around here from time to time. The animals appears lost and confused and walks around in circles. I, too, thought it was rabies the first time I saw it. Called the humane society because I wanted them to see it while it was still alive. They said it was distemper, and took it and put it down.
You had to put it down anyway, not criticizing that action at all. But sometimes its good to know what's going around in your area.
MossRoad
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If anyone has cats and lets them outside, or knows anyone that has cats that they let outside and doesn't say anything, then complains about possums, has a warped view of nature...
MossRoad
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How could anyone not like a momma possum with 15 babies??
Sawyer Rob
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cqaigy2
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Cats decimate the bird population. I love cats but they really tear up the wild life.
MossRoad
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I've had cats my entire life but for one 3 month period. The cats I grew up with, my parents let them out all the time. They were killing machines. Birds, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits... pretty much everything that they could kill, they will. I was so sickened by it that I swore when I had my own place, I'd never let any of my cats outside ever. There's just no reason. They throw off the balance of nature wildly.
mapper
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My understanding is that the North Carolina tar heels that settled in the upper Skagit and Darrington region of the state brought them here and they have been spreading ever since. Always had them around where I grew up near Bellingham. Didn't see any around Olympia for a few years after I moved, but they showed up about thirty years ago. Lots of them here now.
My folks kept a compost bucket on their lower porch, my sister found one living in it, had to have been there for about a week. It seemed to be very happy, every day after dinner the lid was opened and more food was dumped in - possum heaven. It wasn't noticed until weekend because it was late fall and the lower porch was not lighted.
tallyho8
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I've always preferred to photograph wild animals instead of shooting them but that was before my favorite horse died from "possum disease".(Equine Protozoal Encephalytis)
Any possum around my property now won't be here long.
Any possum around my property now won't be here long.
nybirdman
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In Northern NY we have had opossums since about 1980;just about the time the state started stocking turkeys up here.Odd but true;their tails some-times freeze off because it gets so cold in the winters.I got a picture on a trail cam the other day of one(possum).They try and raid my pheasant pens once in a while.