10 Reasons to Love Opossums

[MineralMan]

8. They're pretty inoffensive, overall.

If you approach a wild one, it will probably open its mouth, show its very many teeth and hiss loudly at you. Be not afraid. Just stand your ground. It won't attack you. Instead, it will figure out that the hissing didn't get the job done and stop doing that. It will then turn around and start walking away from you. If you follow, it may try the hissing trick again, but it may not. In any case, you can follow the critter from a few feet away and see what it does.

If you have them in your yard as regular visitors, they enjoy cheap dry cat food very much. They also like peanuts in the shell. Don't give them the salted ones, though. Either raw or roasted without salt. They'll tend to show up at the same time each day, usually in the evening. You can get a chair and sit near their food. They'll come anyhow, and you'll get to watch them.

If you've a mind to, you can easily get them to take a peanut in the shell from your hand. It never takes long. They're not really smart enough to be afraid for long. Once they're taking peanuts from your hand, it's a simple step to scritch them between the ears. The first time you do it, the opossum might startle after a short delay, but just a little. Soon, though, it won't mind being scritched.

Opossums are very, very unlikely to bite you. They just don't do that, as a rule. If you're gentle around them, they'll quickly get used to you and won't see you as any kind of threat. They're also not bad with pets. My kitties in California used to walk right up to them and sniff noses with them. Dogs, though, seem to want to bark like crazy at them, so they're not really compatible.

If you're not comfortable near wild animals, ignore what I wrote above and just watch them through your window. As my wife says, "Do not do what that man is doing."