Ok, so maybe it's not a pet.
I waited an hour or so & went back to check on the "possum". He was gone. Not a trace of him. BUT, there are several gaps in the privacy fence behind where he was, so I think he may have gone under their fence & disappeared from our yard. (hallelujah!)
Or a possum!
This morning, Samuel went out to feed King & came back into the house saying there was a rat in the yard. Larry went to check it out & found this little creature, curled up into a ball (like a opossum does when it's trying to hide or play dead). Based on that behavior, he declared that it wasn't a rat, but a opossum. After all, a rat would run away if you were standing this close to it! And rats don't curl up into a ball to "hide" like this.
After standing there for a while, he did finally uncurl & they could see its face. All this time, I was inside. I spotted them all peering at the ground out a window & opened it to ask what they were doing. Larry told me (after seeing its face) that it was a opossum. I was wow'd & came out w/ my camera. I scared it & it curled up into a ball again. (That's when I took the pics above.)
Anyway, when it uncurled its body, you could see it looked like this:
Anyway, when it uncurled its body, you could see it looked like this:
Ok, if you look at it from JUST THE RIGHT ANGLE, it does have that opossum face shape, but definately not the coloring (white face, etc). And again, no rat would let me get THIS CLOSE to it. I was like 2 feet away & it still just sat there, not moving....like a opossum does when it's "playing opossum". I left for work thinking "hmmm...maybe it's just a rat....".
When I got home w/ the kids this afternoon, they immediately wanted to go to the back yard to see if the "opossum" was still there. This thing has moved all of maybe 2 feet all day long.....which tells me that no matter WHAT it is, something's WRONG with it. I mean, it *has to be sick* or something. And the thing is, we've got bug poison around the perimeter of our yard. It doesn't bother a big dog, but for a little animal like this, I suspect it could very well kill it. We found him/her in between our chainlink fence & the neighbor's privacy fence. You can see the white powdery stuff (poison) on the ground. Seriously...a sick & dying animal often goes off to hide to die....so I'm thinking that's what is going on here.
When I got home w/ the kids this afternoon, they immediately wanted to go to the back yard to see if the "opossum" was still there. This thing has moved all of maybe 2 feet all day long.....which tells me that no matter WHAT it is, something's WRONG with it. I mean, it *has to be sick* or something. And the thing is, we've got bug poison around the perimeter of our yard. It doesn't bother a big dog, but for a little animal like this, I suspect it could very well kill it. We found him/her in between our chainlink fence & the neighbor's privacy fence. You can see the white powdery stuff (poison) on the ground. Seriously...a sick & dying animal often goes off to hide to die....so I'm thinking that's what is going on here.
I waited an hour or so & went back to check on the "possum". He was gone. Not a trace of him. BUT, there are several gaps in the privacy fence behind where he was, so I think he may have gone under their fence & disappeared from our yard. (hallelujah!)
...and by the way, I definately think it's just a rat. Check out this picture of a rat....kinda looks like this thing's twin, huh?
3 comments:
It definitely just looks like a big city rat. If it was sick, that's probably why it curled up, especially if it hadn't moved much. I know rats are dirty and gross, but it just makes me so sad to think of the little guy dying alone. When it comes to animals, I always seem to personify them, but it just breaks my heart to see that little guy just sitting there.
I was thinking it looked very much like a rat.
You know, sometimes, pregnant rats don't move around much. Maybe you'll have lots of new little pets around. LOL!!
Sorry.
ewwwwwwwwwwwww! Whatever it is, it's gross!
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