Comments on: What’s fer supper paw?

By: pat

pat — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:37:34 +0000

We have a regular zoo in our yard every day. Our possom comes when it’s dark out (nite). If i don’t see him, i can always spot his tracks. morning brings the (meaning 1-the same one) rabbit and the three (as in 3, the same ones) squirrels. the squirrels are almost so tame that the come close to eating peanuts out of my hand, and dig quite unconcerned in the grass 2 feet from me. Then there is the ‘hood cat who , im sure is looking for the possum, squirrels, and mr. rabbit. I have bird feeders up, so on a given day there could be 200 birds in the yard. Then there is our dog bolo and our neighbours dog charlie, who often play to-gether. finally, plenty strange 2 legged creatures whose species name i don’t know. Ok, humans.
seriously, the city yard is totally rife w/ wildlife.

By: rachael

rachael — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 21:24:20 +0000

oh my lord.
that is a terrifying creature.

i am suddenly far more appreciative of the raccoon that ate my garbage can (the can itself, not even the garbage inside), for the simple fact that it is not a possum.

By: hell's donut house

hell's donut house — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 07:32:17 +0000

Once I came home at about two in the morning and saw a *herd* of them travelling up the street. There were about a dozen of different sizes, looked like mom and dad and kids. When I inched closer to get a better look I stepped on a leaf, and at the sound of the crunch they instantly disappeared up a couple of trees. I waited silently for about five minutes and finally they migrated back down to street level, crossed the front porch of the house across the street in single file and disappeared around the corner. An eerie and beautiful sight…

By: john

john — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 19:27:15 +0000

A couple weeks ago, I saw TWO raccoons idly wandering down the sidewalk on a pretty busy street (Ridge betw. Clark and Broadway). It was weird because I’ve only ever seen raccoons in alleys, hiding behind things. But these two didn’t seem to be bothered by the bustle. I actually had to stop and walk around them.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 06:16:36 +0000

I guess you could always name it Pogo

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 23:48:21 +0000

It isn’t cute… its an marsupial, eating machine!

By: sarah d.

sarah d. — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:49:36 +0000

Aw, he’s so cute!

By: Richard the Black

Richard the Black — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 21:34:24 +0000

Possum? Yarr…that be good eatin’s! Tis true! Especially in a jaunty stew…

By: edith

edith — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:58:18 +0000

I used to see ‘em in Austin a lot, but I’m pretty sure this is the first one I’ve seen in Chicago. Yeah Jake, they sure would hang out by the dumpsters! I was about to take out my trash when I saw it. Maybe somebody’s putting out cat food by their back door or somethin’. So gnarly.

By: tdaschel

tdaschel — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 13:03:05 +0000

my grandfather told me long ago (i wasn’t but knee high to a duck at the time), "look, Tim, that’s an opossum. they’re the rats of the wilderness." since then i’ve seen hundreds (it’s Virginia and they’re the didelphis virginiana, for _’s sake), a few of them actually alive. so now they’re in the Big City? (perhaps they always were). maybe i’ll see them in Milwaukee and say, "wow, this is just like home / except with Serbian restaurants and kids on Vespas…"

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 12:58:16 +0000

That’s funny. I just realized that what I thought had been the largest rat I’d ever seen was probably just one of these monsters. Do possums hang out in alleys by dumpsters?

By: Soren

Soren — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 05:55:20 +0000

You haven’t seen one? How long have you lived in the city? Possoms are everywhere. There are also plenty of raccoons. I also once saw an actual beaver swimming across the Chicago River at the Wilson St. Bridge.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 04:20:00 +0000

I’ve ain’t never seen one of them critters ’round my parts… we just teeny bunnies and smelly zebra’d polecats.

By: luke

luke — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 03:46:17 +0000

Watch out, they’re mean!

On our midwestern farm, just across the lake from the windy city, we’d get rid of oppossums by cornering them, putting a plastic garbage can in front of them, and then goading them with a snow shovel to enter our makeshift ‘possum-transporter.

This will certainly not be useful, as by now you’ve already gotten rid of it, or it’s eaten you. They have very sharp teeth. But it does give me an exuse to say that the music’s fantastic, and it’s an incredibly pleasant surprise to look up a favorite songwriter and a see a huge blog. Thanks for all the music!