Possum in my laundry room

My fiance just woke me up, yes at 3 am, to find out if I have film for the camera. He was excited because he wanted to take a picture of a baby possum which got into our laundry room. The door in from the outside is separate from our other entrance.

Yes, it was cute, but all I could think about was the cats and their potential reaction. The possum was at the top of the steps, right by the door to the kitchen. It looked terrified.

Dan was ready to feed it and let it hang out there all night. I said, No, it has to go. He thought I was being mean.

I said, what about rabies or other diseases? He thinks because it's a baby, there's no chance of that, and it wasn't foaming at the mouth.

I live in a small city, so I was really surprised by the little guy. I hope it survives, it was very cute.

When we lived in a semi rural area of South Carolina, I liked to leave the door open to allow the cats free access. I came out of my kitchen one day and there stood a possum in my hallway. I tried to shoo him away, but he just stood there, not the least bit afraid. Finally, he just wandered out on his own. He lived in the big tree right outside the door, and was pretty tame. Fred, who loves everything, would sit in the bottom branches of the tree and hang out with him. I saw him for about a month, then I guess he moved on. It was so funny. My mother in law had one get into her house that was pretty aggressive. She came home one night, and it was sitting on her kitchen counter with a fork in one paw and a fishbone in the other, hissing at her. I never saw that old bag move so fast. It kept coming back when they weren't home and ransacking the kitchen. It was coming in through a hole in the floor. They finally trapped it in a trash can and took it off to the woods a few miles away.
I think you are right to be concerned about diseases, I think they can be pretty nasty creatures. If the one in my tree had shown the least bit of aggression toward the cats, he would have been possum stew for the neighbors.

it was sitting on her kitchen counter with a fork in one paw and a fishbone in the other, hissing at her. I never saw that old bag move so fast.

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LOL, sounds like you really like your mother-in-law. I think I'd be moving fast, too. Luckily, "our" possum was frozen with terror. It looked very young. Glad nothing happened to your kitties. I think both of mine would take an agressive stance on any animal that comes into their domain. They do it with the neighbor's dog, which is 10 times their size.

Quote By Krazy Kat2:
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My mother in law had one get into her house that was pretty aggressive. She came home one night, and it was sitting on her kitchen counter with a fork in one paw and a fishbone in the other, hissing at her. I never saw that old bag move so fast.
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:LOL: I had to laugh at that one!!!! :LOL:

Those possums sure are good at playing dead...one time a few months ago, the dogs got ahold of one (full grown) and I thought they had killed it. I felt kinda sorry for it...but me and the kids went out and investigated, and were right next to it, and it seemed pretty dead.
Then a half hour later or so, I looked out the window and there it was, with the dogs asleep all around it, slowly walking away.

A guy I used to work with got a frantic call one day from his very pregnant wife. She had come home with their young daughter, and there was an opossum sitting at the top of the stairs. Even their cat was staring in shock. He had to rush home to save the family, but by the time he got there, it was gone. He figured that they must have had a hole somewhere in the house that it came in through. I know for a while his wife was hesitant when she came home, not knowing what would be there to greet her.

You did the right thing. It is never a good idea to intentionally feed a wild animal- and I don't mean a feral cat Hopefully it wasn't an orphaned baby and will find mom and the family soon. I too hope it survives.

This thread is doubly amusing: possum stories AND the mother-in-law issues. Maybe, we need an outrageous mother-in-law thread!

Maybe, we need an outrageous mother-in-law thread!

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Ok, here's my story of my future mother-in-law. She is a very nice person, just very eccentric. I think it comes from living alone except for the dog and about 6 cats.

She has been digging into her family history, and discovered some Irish ancestors way back. She sent us a drawing of a knight, one of those Celtic etchings, with a note: Can't you see the resemblance to Dan? (my fiance) Truthfully, there is no resemblance to anyone that I know of. It's not like there's a lot of detail on the face or anything. Sadly, she was not joking.

Oh dear god.... pleeeease don't get me started on my M-I-L!!!!!!!! :LOL: :LOL:

I for one would love to hear some MIL stories. Mine is just so sweet I love these stories about mad harpies and stomping haridans.

But my EX-MIL - different story altogether. Nutty as a fruitcake.

Eeeks Yola.... I could on forever about the bitchy remarks etc etc...... but somehow they are all said in a way that if I say anything back, it works out as being MY fault?? Like I'm too touchy, or I've taken it the wrong way....
One of the MAJOR things she did which just drive me absolutely insane.... was... (I think I've mentioned it before on here.... but oh well.. ) hubby and I went on holiday for a week with some friends, and hubby's brother was supposed to be looking after the kitties. Well, when we got home, as soon as I walked in I KNEW she'd been in the house, how??? Because she'd re-arranged all my furniture!! I went upstairs to our bedroom, to find that she had stripped the bed and washed it and changed the bedding, she had gone through our washing and done it all, and ironed it all.... she had arranged my wardrobe into "colour order" and what really sent me loony...... she'd even been through my underwear drawer and sorted all my "unmentionables" into bras, knickers, socks, tights etc etc..... she'd even taken out my thongs for god sake, ironed them and folded them all up!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you can imagine, I WAS NOT pleased...... but of course, when hubby mentioned it to her, she got all stroppy and said "oh for goodness sake, I was only trying to help, why did she take it like that?? I thought she'd appreciate it" Yeah.... right..... I love having people go through my underwear....

Oooh (rubs thighs in Vic Reeves style) - having somebody furtling through your undies while you're away - nice.

Bodlover - that is SO creepy. I really think I would have been walking around on the ceiling if someone had done that to me!

Your self contol is remarkable!

Hahaha... well.... actually, my self control was rather lacking when I first got home and saw it all!!!!!! Thankfully, I had managed to plug the steam from my ears before I saw "her" :LOL:

(BTW, I LOVE Vic & Bob!!!!! Tooooo funny!!! Shooting Stars is great but personally I loved "The smell of Reeves and Mortimer" more )

My first mother-in-law was a hypochondriac. Every time soneone, on a soap opera got some dread disease, she got the symptoms. When I got pregnant, SHE started throwing up and, when she missed a period, went running off to the doctor for a pregnancy test!

After Richard was born, she freaked, every time he sneezed. She was, also, obsessed with bowel habits. I left Richard with his grandparents, one day. When Richard had not pooped, by noon, SHE decided that he was constipated. The old witch gave him a dose of Castoria, without consulting me. That poor child was doubled up, with cramps and wound up covered in you-know-what, just after we'd picked him up. I threw a fit! I told to NEVER give any kind of medication, to MY child, without my OK.

Hahaha! These mother-in-law stories are so funny! I remember you telling us about the underwear incident, Rhea....I can't believe she even folded your thongs!!!! OMG! It is a good thing you didn't have any um....how can I say it on a family site..."devices" hidden in drawers...ya know what I mean??? (for the romance department that is...not talking about drugs or anything...:LOL: )

She would have probably washed them for you!!! :LOL:
(after she passed out) :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Hubby's mother just drives me NUTS!!! I love her dearly, don't get me wrong...but she babies him to no end!!!!! If he is sick with the flu or a cold, she drives over with asprin, soup, jello, whatever he wants, and calls 10 times a day to see how her poor baby is doing...and he really plays it up for her....moaning and groaning...and then when I am sick.....where's the soup? Where are the phone calls??? Nope. I get nothing. Oh well.

And a few weeks ago we took a trip wit hher to my hubby's nephews funeral, and my 17 year old step daughter drove....well hubby's mother had a cow because we got a little lost when we got there. We had 45 minutes to find the funeral home, but she kept saying..."well we might as well just forget it now...we're never going to make it in time." Then she'd get all upset and say "Just pull over and ask these people here, there's no sense in driving around in circles" ect ect...even though we were on the right track, and got there plenty early. She made everyone so nervous!!!!!! She kept doing the backseat driving thing...and since she was so flipped out on the whole "time" issue, I had to say when we passed a garage sale...."Oh look!! A garage sale! We have time to stop don't we????"
I thought she was going to fly out the window on that one!!! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Debby you are so mean! :laughing2:

My MIL drives me nuts, too, but in a completely different way. That woman hates all men. Period. I'll give her that her marriage to FIL was very bad - abusive and all that. (And she still hates Ed, BTW. It's been almost 20 years since their divorce and still makes a point to badmouth him whenever she gets a chance. She cannot accept that he may have changed in that time. In fact, she almost didn't come to our wedding b/c he was going to be there.) Anyway, she goes so far as to lump her own son into the same group as every other man. Little digs at him when she can, and then laughs like it was a great joke.

Oh, yeah, and her whole thing with money. She conviced her mother (step-mother) that Earl (hubby) only wanted to see her/talk to her so he could get money from her. So now he can't hardly call his own grandmother because she is all bitter to him. (Of course, grandma can give all kinds of money to his sister, just nothing to him. She had a trust fund set up for each of them, but after MIL's talks, she closed the account set up for Earl. Nice family, huh?) Oh, and at our wedding, MIL was complaining about how much she had to spend on airfare, had to stay with us since she couldn't afford a motel, etc. Then she drops $300+ on something from Home Shopping Network while she was staying with us. And you were how broke??

Geesh! Guess she wasn't too broke after all!