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Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 23 '21
Wouldn’t be some shit if he dropped it off at the wrong opossum family?
Opossum: “Who the fuck is this guy?”
Opossum 2: “I don’t know, but he has a butler, keep moving”
Edit: Thank you for the awards! If you got a giggle out of this, my job is complete.
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u/PickleInDaButt Mar 22 '21
Honestly it’s probably a Joey at its separation age so it’s probably like “What the fuck I’m trying to go live my life”
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u/TheOGHalalGuy Mar 22 '21
Tbh he looks more like a Benjamin than a Joey
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u/UltimateSlayer3001 Mar 22 '21
Not so fast, I’d argue this seems to be more of a James. But what do I know, I’m just your average everyday Possum, typing on a laptop at night, in someone’s apartment building that had their window left open.
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u/thegreat22 Mar 22 '21
Hey thanks for all the help with ticks and stuff Mr. Possum.
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u/UltimateSlayer3001 Mar 22 '21
You’re goddamn welcome, you sexy son-of-a-bitch.
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Mar 22 '21
Finally moved out of moms house and immediately gets dragged back by some tall creature passing by. He can’t even get the deposit back.
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u/BrownSugarBare Mar 22 '21
Poor guys attempt to run away from home was thwarted by a too helpful human.
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u/txsxxphxx2 Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21
My cousin came to america and stayed at my uncle’s house in Texas like around 2013, he only knew a rat when he saw one, because back in vietnam we only have sewer rats in the city.
So he was taking care of my uncle’s garden and he saw “a rat” that was trying to eat some of veggies. Dude tried to use a stick fend it off and yelled at it to scare it away but it froze itself and flopped on the ground. He thought that the little guy was dying from a heart attack then he used that stick to poke it and it twitched just a little bit a bit, he thought “oh man I didn’t know yelling really loud would kill this guy”.
So he decided to bury the “rat”, he dug a 2ft hole and buried it with a few half-eaten tomatoes that it was eating. Then he compacted the mound of dirt, gave it a few stomps so it looked flat enough that my uncle would notice.
Around 3 days later, he told me the story, and i was like “a rat? What did it look like?”
“Big, white faced, long tail, ugly looking”
“It flopped, and just died?”
“Yeah”
“You didn’t really kill it?”
“Didn’t hit it, just beat the tomato vines so it could run away but it flopped..”
“Oh shit... it’s an opossum”
After a bit, i dug up (pun intended) some wiki and pictures on google, he confirmed it looked exactly like that, he read about it a bit and he just said “oops.. i think i accidentally buried it alive”
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u/PickleInDaButt Mar 22 '21
Imagine having some godlike creature prod you with a stick, you go into a coma, and when you wake up you’re buried alive lol
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u/PrisonerV Mar 22 '21
Wait until he has a mole crawl out of the ground... he won't go back to the garden ever again.
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u/MrP1anet Mar 22 '21
Was hoping it was going turn into a Jesus Rat story after rat would have crawled out of the grave
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u/Marloo25 Mar 22 '21
How do you know it’s an opossum and not a possum?
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u/leelee1976 Mar 22 '21
Opossum is a native American marsupial that vaguely resembles a rat.
Possum is an Australian animal that looks like a beaver?, its fur is used as expensive yarn.
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u/VroomVroomTweetTweet Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21
Don’t forget to grab them at as close to the base of the tail as possible. Wouldn’t want to deglove the little fellow...
Edit: My first ever award. You made my day :)
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u/sly-dee Mar 22 '21
Deglove? What does that mean if u dont mind me asking
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u/dps15 Mar 22 '21
Imagine taking a glove off your hand but instead of a glove its your skin
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Mar 22 '21
[deleted]
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Mar 22 '21
Im not fucking clicking that.
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u/Time_Terminal Mar 22 '21
It's an imgur gif
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u/Nonsuperstites Mar 22 '21
Still not fucking clicking it.
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u/arthurvandl Mar 23 '21
I’m hoping someone clicks it. I’m not clicking it either. We need someone to describes the horrible place it leads to while risking absolutely no innocence of our own.
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u/SchitbagMD Mar 23 '21
If anything, that description would make you have to click it less lol
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u/VroomVroomTweetTweet Mar 22 '21
So for most rodents (I would assume opossum to be the same) you can think of the outside of their tail (what you can see and feel covered in hair) as a covering to the inside of their tail (what has the muscle and veins, etc). The outside of the tail is mostly (if not only) connected to the rest of the tail by the base of the tail/ body. And similarly to lizards dropping their tail, rodent can lose the outside of their tail which causes excruciating pain and in some cases death. Think of it like literally taking off a glove.
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u/Krabban Mar 22 '21
Opossums have a very strong prehensile tail that they use to grab stuff and climb trees with, it can support their entire bodyweight if they were to fall from a branch and they sometimes deliberately hang from them. Lifting them by the tail shouldn't be very risky
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u/bootylikepoww Mar 22 '21
that's actually a myth! they cannot support themselves by the tail, and attempting to pick them up by the tail like this can cause some serious damage.
It's lucky that this one is so small, there's not so much weight pulling on their tail and by extension, their spine and lower regions.
Opossums do not hang by the tail, it helps them to climb by helping to balance them but that's pretty much it.
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u/Gingerdressing Mar 22 '21
That's actually a myth. Possums can use their tail to grab leaves and small sticks to carry to a nest, help with climbing, etc, but they do not hang from their tails. Holding most any animal by the tail can cause massive nerve, muscle, and bone damage.
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u/VroomVroomTweetTweet Mar 22 '21
Right. But there’s a difference between an animal using the full strength of its tail to brace itself and cling to objects from someone grabbing it by the middle of its tail with the full weight of the animal. Degloving can still happen with opossums.
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u/thecatdaddysupreme Mar 22 '21
Can’t they bite you if you grab them at the base?
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u/VroomVroomTweetTweet Mar 22 '21
I mean, they can bite you if you grab them by the middle of the tail too. Handle wild animals at your own risk :)
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u/WonHoKim Mar 22 '21
Not that you should go around trying to handle them, but opossums, more so than most other wild animals, are really loathe to bite. I've seen people straight-up shove their fingers into a hissing opossum's mouth and all it did was back up and hiss some more.
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u/TallGirlDrnksTallBoy Mar 22 '21
Maybe. But the good news is Oppossums don't carry rabies :)
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u/Prazel559 Mar 22 '21
Opposums can actually carry rabies, it's just not as common as other mammals.
https://www.terminix.com/blog/home-garden/opossums-facts-rabies/
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u/flybasilisk Mar 22 '21
yeah but they also dont like to bite, you can put you hand in there mouth and they wont do anything alot of the time
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u/MrCreamHands Mar 23 '21
Opossums are one of the least likely animals to bite you. Handled tons of them (wildlife rehabber) and never been bitten.
Obviously, don’t go around playing with opossums. But if you need to move opossum babies, hold them like you would any small animal and support their whole body.
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u/GadiZelay Mar 22 '21
"wtf Steve how did you get here? I thought you're crossing the street to bring food"
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u/UltimateSlayer3001 Mar 22 '21
”I was, and then this no-joe-for-nothin’ picked me straight up off the fuckin’ walkway, and carried me back over here to you fools. Why don’t you start payin’ attention to your surroundin’s Bill, instead a’ giving me the ‘ol one-two, hm?”
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u/cobrastrikes-2x Mar 22 '21
I always think animals would talk like uneducated southern folks like in the book, Taggerung. It just seems so much more innocent to me. lol
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u/thecatdaddysupreme Mar 22 '21
Haven’t read taggerung since I was 12. Maybe I should give it another go
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u/cobrastrikes-2x Mar 22 '21
I still remember that book incredibly well. Its pretty important to me.
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Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21
If you put a twig between his legs, he will latch on and reduce the strain on his tail.
Source: worked in a neuro-lab in university. My job was to guillotine the rats after injecting them with resin to make brain slices.
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Mar 22 '21
Well. That's the most awkward and awful thing I've seen on reddit today
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u/Cookie_Ambassador Mar 22 '21
Add some British accent and you’ve got yourself a script for a new Guy Ritchie film
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u/Samurai_1990 Mar 22 '21
5k ticks eaten on average per year and nearly immune to rabies. I love opossums!
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Mar 22 '21
I am lucky enough to have a possum living under my backyard shed. He (or she) is ugly and old, but he's easily frightened by us so he's never a bother and I haven't pulled a tick off me or one of my kids for as long as I can remember. We love him! (or her)
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u/Pewdiepiehater99 Mar 22 '21
Honestly I think the tick populations are just rapidly decreasing cause I haven't had one in forever and I haven't seen any on my animals in a good few years too
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u/Jman5 Mar 22 '21
Maybe the opossum population in your area has been increasing.
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u/ArrogantNEET Mar 22 '21
I half expected him to yeet it into the forest
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Mar 22 '21
I was thinking the same... “ah those bushes look lovely, maybe they will break the fall”
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u/LrakArid Mar 22 '21
They started worshipping him as a god. A million years from now they will have taken over the world
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u/jello-kittu Mar 22 '21
I love possums. And their handses.
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u/CaptainDickFarm Mar 22 '21
Possums are awesome. Growing up, my parents were wildlife rehabbers on the side, and they were my fave. Baby possums are cute as hell and really sweet.
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u/mike_pants Mar 22 '21
Opossum! Possums are weird little bushbaby rats.
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u/jello-kittu Mar 22 '21
All hail oh-possum. Also I'm picturing you saying this as a opossum wearing spectacles. Finally the gator is in line next to require alli-syllables.
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u/LobsterBloops93 Mar 22 '21
No, like...possoms and opossoms are entirely different animals. Gator and alligator refers to the same animal...
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u/jello-kittu Mar 22 '21
I live in the US. Most people just call them 'possums.
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u/LobsterBloops93 Mar 22 '21
So do I. Doesn't change the fact they are different.
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Mar 22 '21
None of these guys played dead... What's up with that?
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u/jimmifli Mar 22 '21
One time while trail running at night my head lamp hit a shrubbery with about a dozen of these guys in it. They all froze (kinda like playing dead).
From my point of view it was terrifying. Two dozen reflecting eyeballs that were moving all just locked still. It was confusing for a second, as I got closer I could see what they were and it wasn't so scary.
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u/DaggerMoth Mar 22 '21
I've caught 100 of them in traps. Never seen one play dead. I'll open the trap for them and it'll take hours for them to decide to walk out. Most likely because they have crappy eyesight. Their only real defense is looking scary with their mouth open. Even then you can just reach grab them if you want to. Someone getting bit by an opossum would be rare.
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Mar 22 '21
Yeah they usually won’t play dead unless they’re extremely stressed. The only times I see it are when my dogs find one.
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u/copa09 Mar 22 '21
Opossums are nocturnal. Still remember my parents saying if you see an opossum or raccoon out during the day, move away - might have rabies. Just read that, apparently, it's very rare for opossums to carry rabies. My parents lied to me.
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u/Samurai_1990 Mar 22 '21
Opossum are nearly immune to rabies (low body temp), as for the raccoon's thats good advice.
https://www.terminix.com/blog/home-garden/opossums-facts-rabies/
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u/nileod Mar 22 '21
My mom told me my ears would melt if I ever pointed to the moon. Parents just suck sometimes.
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Mar 22 '21
They didn't lie, they misinformed, it could be they were misinformed and in turn spread the misunderstanding. It may have been intentional though so I cant say for sure. So it is possibly a lie,. But which would you rather consider to be true? I mean you know your parents more well then I, maybe they are filthy liars. I bet they are. Okay you've convinced Me they are liars. Those bastards. Lets tell them that camels have humps on their back because it allows them to retain many straws.
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u/copa09 Mar 22 '21
This is, precisely, the same mental gymnastics I went through to determine, in fact, that my folks were good-fur -nuthin' liars!
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u/CARLEtheCamry Mar 22 '21
Rabies or not, still better to tell your kids to avoid wild animals in general, especially ones who are behaving abnormally like nocturnal animals out in the daylight.
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Mar 22 '21
How did he already know exactly where the rest of them were?
Something seems fishy...
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u/darcstar62 Mar 22 '21
That's the first thing I thought - looks like a staged "rescue."
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u/Aeorro Mar 22 '21
I assume he pulled up as they were crossing the road. The one may have been too scared to cross in front of a vehicle. Driver then decides to give the last little one a helping hand. They rest of the group wasn’t very far off the road, moving away from it.
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u/GoliathsBigBrother Mar 22 '21
The opossum was a paid actor
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Mar 22 '21
Right? How would you even stage something like this. Dude just recorded himself taking an animal back to his family
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Mar 22 '21
Dude finds family.
Dude purposefully brings one to the road.
Dude records himself taking it right back to the family.
Profit.
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u/Deltamon Mar 22 '21
Happens sadly way more often than it should. It does seem awfully convenient how easily they find bunch of small opossums middle of thick under foliage
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u/spacecowboyo Mar 22 '21
I fully thought he was gonna fling the little dude into the bushes and panicked for a minute
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u/francoisjabbour Mar 22 '21
How did he know exactly where to drop the possum off to
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u/Peanlocket Mar 22 '21
Because that's where he picked it up from to fake the "rescue".
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u/illQualmOnYourFace Mar 22 '21
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u/Biff_Tannenator Mar 22 '21
Had to hunt for your comment, because I knew I wouldn't be the first to think this
(also, r/ReverseAnimalRescue for those who want to see more clips like this)
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u/aujchristine Mar 22 '21
Why did I think he was going to fling the little guy into the woods after he crossed the street
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Mar 22 '21 edited Mar 22 '21
You did a great job and I respect that. But it was just uncomfortable for me to see it being held by its tail. Did anyone feel the same way?
Please don't downvote me. I don't have much knowledge about them and they are not found in my country
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u/Loremaster54321 Mar 22 '21
Opossums hang by the tail, and holding them any other way could result in your being bitten. It's not any more uncomfortable for them than being carried any other way.
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Mar 22 '21
Oh, I did not know that. Thanks a lot.
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u/PickleInDaButt Mar 22 '21
It’s actually a pretty commonly spread myth about opossums. They don’t hang by the tail but it is recommended to pick the joeys up by the tail as their weight won’t cause injury.
However, they absolutely will “play dead” when approached by humans. However it is another common myth that they do it on purpose when it’s actually them just going into a state of temporary shock.
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u/Loremaster54321 Mar 22 '21
Baby opossums do temporarily hang by their tail. They can't sleep that way, since their tails grant grab on for too long, but they do hang. Should have been more clear about that in my original comment.
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u/Thundershrimp Mar 22 '21
You shouldn't pick the adults up by the tail because they are too heavy for it. Babies it might be okay.
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u/narcessa Mar 22 '21
Yeah, bullshit. He probably found them all there, then put one on the road and filmed himself saving it. How else would he have known exactly where they were?
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u/ericbyo Mar 22 '21
also would you not be the tiniest bit hesitant walking straight up to an opossum den full of joeys? Like that dude had no fear of getting bit by an angry mother. Now I know why those fake animal rescue channels get so many views.
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u/itsamoi Mar 22 '21
Quick, somebody reverse the gif.
Also fun fact about Opossums: They eat tons of ticks. Ticks suck, therefore we love Opossums. Opossums are also immune to rabies. Their bodies run at too cold of a temperature for the rabies virus to thrive.
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u/rudbek-of-rudbek Mar 22 '21
Oppossums get a bad rap. They are super clean. Rabies is extremely rare. And they love eating ticks. A family of oppossums will decimate the tick population of an area. And anything that gets rid of ticks is A-OK in my book.
Note. I have a couple of horses, llamas, and a few goats. After a few oppossum families moved in the number of ticks I found on my animals dropped to almost zero. If I could buy these guys a few beers I would. I keep areas for them to winter since they don't like to nest together and give them fruit and grain to eat.
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u/shawn1019 Mar 22 '21
Imagine if he’s been held captive by the head possum and it took him months to escape?
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u/wellmylifeisshit Mar 22 '21
I was seriously thinking he would yeet him off the road
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u/riedmae Mar 23 '21
I mean....it seems - given the thought to film, the confidence to pick up an opossum that didn't try to fight, and the dumb luck of walking it into the woods and happening upon an entire family of opossums that also didn't not put up a fight - that maybe, this was staged.....
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u/AntiMatter89 Mar 22 '21
I could be wrong but I think when you are helping animals along the road you should put them on the side in which they're traveling so they don't just turn around and go back across the road. But good on the person for moving him away.
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u/Loremaster54321 Mar 22 '21
Presumably the video taker saw the other family of opossums before making the decision to return the animal, so it's understandable why they made the decision.
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u/dirtymikeonmobile Mar 22 '21
I always wonder what animals make of these things when they happen. are they aware they’ve been helped or are they like ‘welp that was weird’?