While the Mississippi River floods…some children make friends with a shy possum who also heads uphill. — Miska Miles, American author, Mississippi Possum (1899-1986)

We had just settled down for a long winter’s nap when out on the porch we heard such a racket we sprang from the bed to see what in the world was going on. And there on the porch were two possums vying over one bowl of cat food while the cat, Harry, watched quietly from the porch railing. Harry is not a fighter cat and doesn’t mind sharing his food; he is confident there will be more to come later. Sam grabbed a flashlight, and I stepped outside the door. The possums decided to divide and conquer by running in opposite directions while Harry sat docile on the rail.

Possums are unattractive little critters. They look slightly pitiful. Their hair is scraggly and thin. They have a pointy face, round beady eyes and a long hairless tail. You might say they are so ugly they are cute. Many nights when I step out on the porch, I can hear them scurrying through the leaves and into the woods. Occasionally they will turn and look back. The light catches their eyes. We never see them in the daytime. Possums’ eyes are not suited for daytime but work fairly well at night.

Possums are known for “playing dead” when protection is needed by those who might harm them. I found a possum in the woods once that appeared to be dead. I lifted its approximate 14 pounds by the long skinny tail, put it in the back of the Gator, and removed it to the critter graveyard. I laid him on the ground where he took off for the woods. He also had quite a bad smell about him. I would learn later they not only play dead, they put out a scent that smells dead. Scientists say possums don’t choose to play dead; it’s their reaction to stress and anxiety.

The hairless tail the possum has does not add anything to its attractiveness but is incredibly useful. They can hang from a tree by their tail. That thin little hairless tail can wrap around a tree limb and hold the possum upside down for hours on end.

The diet of a possum — besides cat food — is almost anything available: garbage, compost piles, discarded food scraps, birdseed and so on. Finding anything dead or alive will provide lunch for the possum. They will eat frogs, insects including ticks, grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, termites and roaches. They’ll eat small fish, birds, lizards, mice, snakes and rabbits. Oddly enough, the possum has a natural immunity to certain snake venom. They also have up to 50 crushing teeth.

Other than the living and the dead diet, possums will eat fruit, berries and garden produce. The name Possumhaw for this column came from a native tree found in the Prairie. The tree got its name from the possums that gathered around the tree for the red berries that looked much like the hawthorn tree thus the name Possumhaw.

Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].

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