Poor Bastard - An opossum TR

In the vein of iceman's deer-hammer story, I hit an opossum tonight on my way back from the rock climbing gym. I was doing about 50 on a side street, and the fucker darted out. I tried to center him between the wheels so that he hopefully wouldn't get hit, but my car is pretty low and the opossum was big...

I heard him hit and bounce a few times, and after a few choice expletives, turned around and went to see if he had lived. I found him pretty much exactly where I had gone over him, and he was alive, sitting up, but bleeding from the mouth and paw. I felt like a real shithead, but I wasn't going to risk swerving off of the road to avoid him. I called a few people to get some opinions on what I should do, and the consensus was that there was nothing I could do, and to get the hell out of there. I didn't have anything with me to put him out of his misery, so I suppose it's moot anyway. Using the car to hit him was not an option.

My stoke meter, which had been quite high from leading a hard, overhanging 10c, was pretty deflated as a result.

I took some cell phone pics, but I don't have the software on this machine to get them off. A small piece of underbody trim got displaced on my car, but no real damage.

:frown:

Opossums like to pretend they are dead and stuff.

He was just faking his injury,
probably trying to get some free meds from you.

Or maybe his opossum buddies were in the bushes waiting for you to stop and go help, and then they would car-jack your shit and go on a opossum joy-ride.

You did the right thing.

Pics...

http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/1494/img00074qi2.jpg
http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/7996/img00077ei2.jpg

Oh, man, I feel for you, DD. It's awful to hit an animal and see it suffer. Call the cops. If you get lucky, they might send someone out to shoot it and take it away.

I hit a Siamese cat once in the middle of the night. I crested a hill and it was eating something in the road. I was driving a tractor-trailer at the time, and you don't swerve those unless Satan is standing there with an AK-47 pointed at your steering wheel, so when I hit him, all my wheels hit him.

It went Thunk......pause...Thunk Thunk....longer pause......Thunk Thunk.

No reason to wonder if he was alive.

I was driving down the road one day......

I didn't leave the poor SOB to die a slow painful death.

Keep my name out of it you fucking pussy.

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Originally Posted by iceman

I didn't leave the poor SOB to die a slow painful death.

Keep my name out of it you fucking pussy.

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Way to make me feel worse icemang. You are probably right though.

I had a similar horrid experience the other day and it totally ruined my buzzz.. This damn rabbit ran out in the middle of the damn freeway and all I know is I tried to avoid it.. But last thing I remember is it cartwheeling away in my rear view mirror...

I did that when my kids were little, "Hey Daddy, look, a bunny!" THUMP.

Hard to tell if you broke or crushed his spine behind the shoulders in those pics, but that possum doesn't look that messed up. Getting whacked hard in the head by your trim, even so hard that you bleed out your mouth, is bad -- but less traumatic than being paralyzed from the waist down by being rolled over by a wheel. It's entirely possible that this possum would be able to get away, recover and reproduce -- the point of animal life.

I'm in favor of putting an animal down if you know it has no chance. I've seen it done with firearms, clubs, and bare hands (neck-wringing). From what you've told us, this animal still had a chance.

between this and the dolphin video I am pretty damn disgusted today.

What kind of sick freak hits an animal, backs up and takes pictures of the damage then brags about it on the internet? :cussing:

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Originally Posted by frozenwater

What kind of sick freak hits an animal, backs up and takes pictures of the damage then brags about it on the internet? :cussing:

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Brags about it?! Fuck you!

I turned around to see if it had lived, then agonized over whether to leave or not. The thread is about my feeling of guilt over the little guy.

:fuckyou:

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Originally Posted by Yeti

It's entirely possible that this possum would be able to get away, recover and reproduce -- the point of animal life....From what you've told us, this animal still had a chance.

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That's good to hear, thanks.

froz would have taken him home and nursed him back to health.

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Originally Posted by Venus Flytrap

I was driving a tractor-trailer at the time, and you don't swerve those unless Satan is standing there with an AK-47 pointed at your steering wheel,

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Ever hear that Tom Waits' song, Phantom 309? Classic...That'll get your mind off rodents :D

This begs the question:

Why did the chicken cross the road?





To prove to the opussum it could be done....

I Froggered a squirrel once, and I felt pretty bad about it too. Now when ever I see one even think about crossing in front of me, I slow way down. People behind me get mad, but fuck them!

I hit a pheasant when I was driving half asleep after an early rowing session. To vent my anger at the bird for damaging my car I picked him up and clamped his head under the bonnet. He flapped most of the way back through Oxford - he was dead, but the wind made his wings flap. One wing was too bruised to cook, but he roasted quite well after being hung for a few days in the cold.

You must love
http://www.liquidass.com/images/BK_dude_lightning.jpg

1 deer by snowmachine.. ran away
1 deer up over the hood of mazda B2200.. ran away
1 deer into the side of Dodge shadow.. ran away
1 fox under 1/2 ton pickup on the hiway.. don't know prolly dead
1 cat between the wheels.. ran away

I was working at a lumber yard and riding along in a class B cdl flatbed. Cruising some rural roads in Acworth N.H. and theres a house with free kittens sign. Kitten runs out and gets clipped and is last seen flailing about in the road.

Did a mercy killing one time of a raccoon dying in the middle of the road. Ran it over again. First time wasn't me.

I love animals I swear. My border collie is my best friend.

Than there was the time the border collie nipped a kitten which had inadvertently(same friend as below was talking to me while standing in the doorway) slipped into my room. The cat was fucked up bad and this is after it had almost reached maturity after 8 weeks living with two Rotties a German shepard and the border collie. Mercy killing with a 2x4.Wasn't my kitten and it should have never been in that house. No one should have been in that house. I call it the house of dead rooster. because when I moved in there was a dead rooster in the chicken coup. We had a fire in the firepit and cremated him one night.

I really do love animals and don't drive fast... shit just happens.

Same house.. I was rolling up the driveway one time in a Jeep Cherokee and the driveway was a steep little hill and it was winter so I had to get speed to get up it. My buddy thinks its cool to throw a football at my jeep as I'm coming up the driveway while all the dogs are out. Rosie my border collie runs after the football and goes right between the front wheels of the Jeep and somehow comes out unscathed.

Same house.. Same friend that threw the football gets into Chevy S-10 and puts in reverse. Funny resistance when he tries to back up. Puts truck in Drive and Rosie appears from the rear of the truck. She walked a little funny for a few days but was fine.

Same house... Same friend.. thinks its a good idea time and time again to throw a stick around all the dogs even though the Rotties get riled up and almost fight and the bitch Rottie always goes after the border collie. Friend throws stick, collie gets stick, shepard nips at collie, female rottie goes into attack mode and clamps onto Roses back leg and won't let go. I dive on top of the rottie and break them apart. Rose has a pretty good gash in her thigh. That slowed her down for a little while and I thought that was enough and moved her to a safe house and move myself before too much longer.

She also thinks its a good idea to bite wheels of things in motion. Wheel Barrows, 4-wheelers, lawn mowers. One time she was biting a four-wheeler tire and had her head run over. She was fine.. I didn't see it and would never of known anything happened.

The only time she's had a problem was when after years of eating Iams and Eukanuba she developed an allergy to something in the food and it took a couple months of chronic runny shits to figure out it was diet.

She lives a charmed life.

I really do love animals, and do take good care of the ones I am in company with. I just let them exercise their free will.

One time she was biting a four-wheeler tire and had her head run over.
She lives a charmed life.



One of the funniest things I have ever read.

I broke a goose's neck once with a rowing oar - it was narsty so I feel for you. I would have thought about backing up if the animal was more injured but from those pictures I think I would have just kept driving.

On the bright side you might have provided a meal for something else and kept that something else alive...

Put a head lock on a deer once and broke it's neck. Ran over tons of stuff, most recently a deer that did $6k in damages to the truck. Nothing but glorified goats. Yeah, I feel bad about running over stuff too. But it happens.

Ken

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Originally Posted by lionelhutz

I broke a goose's neck once with a rowing oar - it was narsty so I feel for you. I would have thought about backing up if the animal was more injured but from those pictures I think I would have just kept driving.

On the bright side you might have provided a meal for something else and kept that something else alive...

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What? Unless you were carrying the oar back to the boat shed and decided to take a swipe this is an admission of comedy technique no? What were you doing with your blade so high off the water, trying to swat sea gulls on your way to front stops?

the MAD, have you tought about "educating" your friend... He somehow is either stupid, really cruel or accident prone...

I've tried. He's just a complete tool where animals are concerned. He doesn't understand how animals think. He and his wife got a dog that had had a tramautized past and the ways he went about getting the dog comfortable were completely useless. Some technique where you throw food to the dog progressively closer to yourself. Just retarded. I would have had that dog eating out of my hand in days. He was still throwing food months after they got her. Good thing its his wifes dog and she's a lot smarter than he is.

One more animal story. My friend drove an old tercel, the hatchback model. The real old school model. He came around a sharp bend in a road and there was a small doe right in the road, or it may have run out. Anyway he clips the thing and he says it just bounced like a rubber ball off of the car, filling it instantly. This kid mind you lives off the grid down a class 6 road in a sort of house. Its up on sauna tubes, no cement pad. Solar panels, generator, gravity feed water you know. He's got a big civil war era beard to boot. He's usually got his car jammed with tools and whatever. He's also not about to leave a dead deer to rot nor call any authorities for help or ask what the proper protocol would be in this situation, thats not the New Hampshire way. So he loads this 100 pound doe into the passenger seat of his little old beat up Tercel and drives it 10 or 15 miles to his house and butchers it. Would have loved to have spotted him driving along thru town with a dead deer sitting upright in his passenger seat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shorey

What? Unless you were carrying the oar back to the boat shed and decided to take a swipe this is an admission of comedy technique no? What were you doing with your blade so high off the water, trying to swat sea gulls on your way to front stops?

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We were doing a all out 500 meter pieces on the schuykill and the goose was sitting on the water. It (and it's flock of geese) were grazing on some alge on the water when the boat approached them from behind. They were startled and tried to take flight. However they made the poor choice of trying to take off in the same direction that the boat was moving. Out boat was moving faster than they were. The 2seat's oar caught the goose in it's ass and knocked it down as it was running on the water to take off. It fell down into the water and 4 and 6 seats oars kept it there by hitting it in the side. It was stunned. I was rowing stroke and just as the goose was righting itself from its side, extendting it's neck off the waterline my oar, on the feather, rigged a little too high, caught it flush in the neck snap- and down went the goose. We looked back and the thing was rolled sideways in the water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lionelhutz

We were doing a all out 500 meter pieces on the schuykill and the goose was sitting on the water. It (and it's flock of geese) were grazing on some alge on the water when the boat approached them from behind. They were startled and tried to take flight. However they made the poor choice of trying to take off in the same direction that the boat was moving. Out boat was moving faster than they were. The 2seat's oar caught the goose in it's ass and knocked it down as it was running on the water to take off. It fell down into the water and 4 and 6 seats oars kept it there by hitting it in the side. It was stunned. I was rowing stroke and just as the goose was righting itself from its side, extendting it's neck off the waterline my oar, on the feather, rigged a little too high, caught it flush in the neck snap- and down went the goose. We looked back and the thing was rolled sideways in the water.

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Ahhhhh. I see.

The combination of your Britney avitar and violent animal killing style rowing is quite alarming.;)