Marsupial on 35th Street

New York Times ^ | January 2004 | Nora Krug

[js1138]

Heard Of The City Mouse? Try Bigger & Far Uglier

By: Nora Krug - www.nytimes.com

January 2004

New York - What was that furry creature parked on a ledge at 135 East 35th Street? A big rat? A cat? A small bear? For nearly eight hours, a quiet corner in Murray Hill was transformed into a kind of temporary zoo, as passers-by stopped to gawk and guess the identity of the long-snouted cat-size animal that paced along a narrow stone ledge about nine feet over a brownstone garden, sniffing, shaking and yawning.

"I was thinking it was a hedgehog, because of the Beatrix Potter books," said Jennifer Gould, who may have been the first to spot it, at 7:30am.

"I thought someone had put a giant statue of a rat in front of the building," said Lynn Peraza.

The animal was, in fact, an opossum - and not entirely an alien in Manhattan.

Click for article

NYTimes.com link

[Tijeras_Slim]

Perhaps we can FEDEX one to a NY FReeper... :)

[avg_freeper]

It's Speak!

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL! Possum - Yankee. Yankee - Possum.

You realize I hope that by presenting the Yankee to the Possum, you are establishing the Yankee as lower in social rank than the Possum . . . which may well be true, but Possums are pretty low on the social scale.

Sunday night my Labrador Retriever went nuts in the back yard - hackles up, barking like a fiend, wound up diving under the deck. There are a couple of drainage pipes under there, and she wound up emerging with a large possum in her mouth. She gave it a good hard shake before dropping it on command, and of course it just lay there like a possum. I took her inside and washed out her mouth (boy did she stink of possum!) and examined her for any bites (none - she's a whole lot quicker than a possum). Went outside, Mr. Possum was still lying there in a heap, my kids suggested that we bury it . . . "it's not breathing" . . . but I told them to let it lay overnight and we'd check in the morning. Next morning bright and early my son put on his mud boots and went out to take a look, came back in and announced cheerily, "Mister Possum's in Alpharetta by now!"

I still think they're nasty. Lots of entertainment for the dog though. This morning she followed its track all over the yard with great excitement, hoping she could catch up. Too late, Miss Shelley!

[Grut]

Imagine what they'd think of an Armadillo.

You laugh, but about fifty years ago somebody's pet Coati Mundi escaped and was found wandering around Long Island (east of NYC, for those of you who don't know the area)... which combined with another enthusiasm of the time to produce newspaper speculation that it had escaped from a flying saucer!

Whatever happened to "Eat mo' possum," anyway?

[AnAmericanMother]

Whatever happened to "Eat mo' possum," anyway?

It's printed on the front license plate on my car:

EAT MORE POSSUM

Possum Growers and Breeders Association
of America, Inc.

I get some double takes. And apparently my Lab can read.

[azhenfud]

"Bout nearly as bad as the story of the Yankee calling collards "tobacco".

[stainlessbanner]

That's great. Here are some recipes for supper

< Notice the gourmet spelling in the url: "possume" >

[AnAmericanMother]

Uh-uh. No way. I may advertise it, but I won't eat it.

My daddy's recipe for roast possum is very elaborate, but the essential ingredient is horse manure. You carefully parboil, season, and wrap the possum in parchment paper & horse manure . . . then after the cooking process you throw away the possum and eat the horse manure . . .

[azhenfud]

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty! Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!

[js1138]

Sounds like the title to an old Bob Dylan song.

More likely it reminds you of this...

Bob Dylan. Sheesh!

[LoneConservative]

I used to work at Queens College in Flushing, NY. We had lots of Possums & Raccoons wandering around the campus. One weekend, two raccoons got into an unoccupied office through a ground level window.They were trapped in there all weekend. Oh, the stink & destruction! New carpets, furniture, etc., not to mention a new pair of shorts for the idiot professor who left his window open on Friday, and opened his door on Monday! Somebody hung a sign on his door that said "Welcome to the Raccoon Lodge".

[AnAmericanMother]

Singing,

"Oh, you can chase a squirrel that's gray,
You won't catch it anyway,
But don't chase that squirrel that's black,
With a white stripe down his back.

Don't chase that squirrel,
That's not a squirrel,
And if you chase that squirrel,
You'll be sooooooooorrrrrry,
You'll be sooooooooorrrrrry,
If you chase that squirrel, you'll be sorry!"

I sing this song regularly to my dog. Fortunately, skunks are a whole lot shyer about coming 'round human habitation than possums and raccoons.

[AnAmericanMother]

[sheik yerbouty]

They've found a coyote or two over the years as well.

[talleyman]

Marsupial on 35th Street

Great title - LOL!

[js1138]

At least someone gets it.

[talleyman]

I hear the atheists have their own Christmas movie: "Coincidence on 34th Street".

[OESY]

One of the best stories was the one about a docile mixed pedigree dog that was half wolf. We New Yorkers freaked out and wanted the dog apprehended and removed (euphemism?) from the city -- all this while we New Yorkers were backing the Clinton administration in spending $7+ million to fly in wolves from Canada and release them throughout western states where we would not be affected. It was someone else's problem, that is until we began to get freaked out over bears rumaging through our garbage.

[sheik yerbouty]

The bears can have my garbage, but never my hot tub!

[Terabitten]

Most of the time...they're in the middle of the road, hit by cars...(the possums &/or political moderates. :)

The natural cause of death of possums here in Georgia is the Goodyear radial.