Okay, I thought these were one-off pictures a few years ago but they’ve definitely persisted. Are people keeping opossums as pets??
Yes, in some U.S. states it is legal to own opossums as pets. A lot of these pics come from rescuers who foster the opossum temporarily, but some are pets.
Map of legal states:
Source: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/pet-opossum-legal-states
That makes much more sense. They all just seemed so calm that I couldn’t figure them out. Very little of the “HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” I know of them.
As far as I can tell, once domesticated, they make good pets.
Here is a video on pet opossum named Butter who was rescued as a wild orphan (3:39 min) - it’s super cute: https://youtu.be/6VW73ZFZiLI
Only one of the green ones surprises me.
Is it Delaware?
It is Delaware. But now I am just thinking less of Delaware. I mean, you can judge a person by the company they keep, so I feel like that should roughly translate to states as well.
I’ve handled 2 possums, and all have been surpassingly calm.
The first got into my house on a particularly noisy July 4th. I heard noise in the kitchen and since I knew where both cats were, was understandably concerned. Lo and behold, this little fellow(ette):
A pair a gardening gloves was all I required to safely transport outside. No playing dead nor hiding, just some very light wiggling.
The other was a rescue that a friend of a friend was rehabilitating along with a skunk. The possum was obviously nervous, but OK with being touched by me and my grandkids.
The skunk, you ask? Essentially a disinterested cat that sniffed proferred have and didn’t mind being touched, but was far more curious about wandering around.
