Playing Opossum in Dallas: Saving Our Wildlife

September 16, 2009 by Kimberly

Opossum

It’s 12:45 am in Dallas, Texas right now…

I just took our kitchen garbage out to the trash can and noticed one of our neighborhood stray dogs laying in the middle of the street.

As I focused in and started approaching, I noticed that it was sitting next to another animal, also in the middle of the street…I thought it could have been a run over cat or something like that…

…As I came upon the dog, I took a look at what kind of animal was laying there and lo and behold, it was the opossum I’ve been noticing walking through the neighborhood some nights, playing dead – completely still, eyes open and all.

The dog, who’s usually quite skiddish when you come near him, wanted to hold his ground even though I was very close and clapping him away to go home. He even growled at me.

I’m sure he was deciding whether he wanted to eat his catch or play with it for a while before eating it, but he finally took off down the way to his house – I don’t know what’s up with his owners.

Anyway, now I’m outside in my pajamas waiting on our street corner for this opossum to “wake” back up and get off the road to disappear into the night again.

I’m telling you, I had to wait 10 minutes. I didn’t want to leave for fear someone would run him over at our intersection…so, I waited to protect him.

Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, he cautiously got up and scurried off into the bushes of the nearest house.

I know it was “just a possum”, but did you know that the opossum is only modern marsupial of the “New World”, carrying it’s babies in a pouch? The rest of the infraclass, Marsupialia, are native to Australia.

The thing is, we’ve encroached on it’s habitat and now, we think they’re expendable. They’re not – they’re an important part of our world.

They may not be the “cutest” mammal of them all, but they deserve to be here too, nonetheless.

I just couldn’t fathom letting him be a chew toy for the stray dog or road kill…Plus, the stray dog is completely black in color and he wasn’t giving up his position laying in the middle of the road either – it was dangerous for all parties.

Yeah for playing opossum! They do this in order to disinterest their predator because they’re already dead. They virtually paralyze themselves and you would honestly think they’re dead. However, I knew better – it was just a clever trick! I’m glad he’ll live to see another night!

Scientific Classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Didelphimorphia
Family: Didelphidae