Mom Didn't Believe When Kids Said A Mysterious Creature Was Living In Their Room

[Omaha Steve]

Stephen Messenger

Like any devoted parents, Caitlin Burch and her husband simply adore their two daughters, aged 9 and 6. But they also know that kids can have quite the imagination.

One night a few months back, Burch's younger daughter came to her to say she'd seen an animal parading around in the bedroom she shares with her sister. While it wasn't out of the question that, say, a little mouse had skittered by, the child's description of the creature rang a bit more fanciful than true.

"She showed us with her hands the size of it and said it was fluffy," Burch told The Dodo. "My husband and I both looked in their room, but didn't see anything."
a group of people standing on top of a sandy beach

Naturally, Burch and her husband were skeptical; a creature as big as their daughter described certainly wouldn't escape their notice. Right?

"Her story was as plausible to us as her complaining about monsters under her bed," Burch said.

FULL story: https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/mom-didnt-believe-when-kids-said-a-mysterious-creature-was-living-in-their-room/ar-BBV1Y1o?ocid=ientp#page=2

[OneBro]

1. I'm pretty sure that's a distant cousin of Mickey Mouse.

[tblue37]

2. I love the "Proper Opposum" channel on YouTube:

https://m.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. How the heck did she domesticate those guys? The ones who come through

the cat door onto my back porch to eat cat food and drink water are nasty. One will hiss at me if I attempt to shoo him out. The other will wreck the place trying to hide.

[tblue37]

4. Apparently they are actually timid, so that's why the threat displays and the desperate

attempts to hide.

They do have extremely sharp teeth and look scary when snarling, though.

I imagine she gets them very young.

[tblue37]

5. And, of course, offering a nice massage can calm anyone down:

https://m.

[tblue37]

6. I am not 100% sure, but I do believe the woman is IRL actually wildlife rehabber

Sharron Baird of Squirrelmender Rehabilitation in CA.

On that site I found this picture:

https://m.facebook.com/112200235522146/photos/a.112497198825783/2554994134576065/?type=3&source=54&ref=page_internal

[Duppers]

7. I used to think they look ugly. Not any more...

Not since I saved one in my back woods a few of months ago - now I adore them. People must think they look too much like big rats but please don't hold that against them.








Notice their little "hands."

[Duppers]

8. Save opossums, fight Lyme Disease...

Why you should brake for possums

The Virginia opossum is not the brightest of animals. When they are threatened, they pretend to be dead, which is where we get the expression "playing possum." Sometimes, they do this in response to threats from oncoming traffic, which results in possums becoming roadkill.

The next time you see a possum playing dead on the road, try your best to avoid hitting it. Because it turns out that possums are allies in the fight against Lyme disease.

Possums, like many other small and medium sized mammals, are hosts for ticks looking for a blood meal. But possums are remarkably efficient at eliminating foraging ticks.

"In a way, opossums are the unsung heroes in the Lyme Disease epidemic."

Rick Ostfeld, author of a book on Lyme disease ecology and a senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, explains...

"Because many ticks try to feed on opossums and few of them survive the experience. Opossums are extraordinarily good groomers it turns out – we never would have thought that ahead of time – but they kill the vast majority – more than 95% percent of the ticks that try to feed on them. So these opossums are walking around the forest floor, hoovering up ticks right and left, killing over 90% of these things, and so they are really protecting our health."

So it's in our best interest to have possum neighbors. This means keeping their habitat intact with thoughtful land use planning, tolerating them in our yards, and, whenever possible, avoiding possum collisions."

http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/podcasts/why-you-should-brake-possums


And...
"Research also suggests the immune system of opossums is fairly effective at fighting off Lyme Disease."

[Duppers]

9. More Possum Benefits

From the National Wildlife Federation:

Opossums, sometimes referred to just as possums, are a benefit to ecosystems and a healthy environment beyond eradicating ticks. They will catch and eat cockroaches, rats and mice..
Gardeners appreciate opossums’ appetite for snails, slugs and for cleaning up over-ripe fruit and berries.

Opossums are also resistant to snake venom and actually prey on snakes, including venomous species such as copperheads and rattlesnakes. Having opossums around can minimize chances of encountering venomous species close to your home.

https://blog.nwf.org/2017/06/opossums-unsung-heroes-in-the-fight-against-ticks-and-lyme-disease/

[Bayard]

10. Ack! Sorry, horse people hate possums.

They are the secondary carrier for EPM, a systemic disease that causes all kinds of things, like nerve damage, in horses. Two of my horses had to be treated for it years ago. Ever after my mare had damage to her tongue and neck from it.
Birds carry it in their wing muscles, but can’t transmit directly. Possums eat dead birds, then poop in horse hay or wherever, and horses ingest that. Not all horses become symptomatic, but are always carriers. The treatment is quite expensive. There is no vaccine, and they can be reinfected.

Our dogs hate them. You can always tell when a possum is on the porch after catfood, because the dogs go nuts.