Tonight on my way back from the workout facility at my apartment I saw an enormous rat. HUGE. It was dark, and I heard a rustling noise coming from the bushes. Out runs this thing that I thought was a cat at first. I remarked to myself what a fat cat that thing was. As I looked at it some more, it had a snout-like nose and a very long tail. It was a freaking rat. I thought it might be some kind of cat that had its hair shaved, but no way with that nose and tail. I had no idea that rats could grow to the size I just witnessed. Disgusting. It was bigger than most cats I've seen. I'm not sure if it was pregnant or just obese.
Crap. Yeah now that I see the picture of a possum it appears that I have incorrectly identified the species. What I saw pretty much looks like that picture. I think I had the right phylum and genus, however.
I had a Shetland Sheepdog that used to go round n round with a possum that tried to eat his food... Ballsy little thing that dog, he also ran full speed into a pair of fully grown Chow Chow's that were trotting across his turf and took them down... Luckily I was there to kick them off before they tore him into little pieces also, when he was a puppy, he got his lil ass kicked by a cat under a house. When he grew up, he repeatedly exacted his revenge by grabbing the cat's tail and pulling it off of a 4 foot high 2x4 that it liked to sleep on. not relevant, but I miss that lil dog
If you want to see a truly big rat, go to the surfside jetties about thirty minutes before sundown. Walk out to the end of the jetty, and when the sun dips below the horizon, walk back to the base. Keep your eyes open......you'll see how big rats can get.
"I think I had the right phylum and genus, however." ________________ Well, they both have a spinal column.
Possums are all over Houston. After spending 12 years in a city where there are rats that size, I was kind of weirded out when I saw one here, but then when you look at it's snout, you know it isn't a regular rat. Possums are some damn ugly creatures.
My folks used to live across from Rice Stadium on University Blvd... there was a possum that must have weighed at least 30 lbs that came around to eat our cat's food. Surprised you never saw any of them when you were at Rice. Maybe the one you saw near the gym remembers you from school and is now following you.
I had a possum family in one of the tress/bushes last year.. they were all white with some brown spots on them unlike the pic above, but these werent scared of me in the least.. after a few weeks I think my dog made them move away because they arent around any more..
bigtexxx, how can you have a name that is associated with texas if you don't know what a possum looks like? that's like saying you hit a big dog driving down the highway, only the dog had antlers and a white tail.. and hooves..
I was on a date in high school with a girl I had been dating a while. We were talking and pulled over on a side street off of Westheimer that wasn't very developed at the time. We kiss a little...and something catches my eye. I look over and about 10 feet from my car, a rat climbs out of a sewer on one side of the street, and runs to the sewer on the other side of the street. I could have worked through it, but let's just say the moment was lost on my girlfriend! I freaking hate rats.
