Rochester Opossum ‘Plays Possum’ To Avoid Capture By Dog

...believe it or not, it worked!

I was browsing Facebook yesterday when I noticed this curious picture. Check out the teeth on this thing!

Then, I read the caption and almost fell over laughing! This opossum actually played possum to avoid being captured by a dog! Rochester local Susan Waughtal wrote, "The dogs were on the hunt in the barn while I cleaned the chicken coop this morning. I presumed they had found a rodent or chased a rabbit in there, but they came out with an opossum with scary looking teeth! I picked him up by the tail and put him in the garbage can out of the reach of dogs until I can dispose of him out in the field without the dogs noticing. But now it occurs to me and I am worrying maybe he was just “playing possum” and I will find a live possum in my garbage can! He doesn’t really look hurt."

It turned out, she was right! Susan checked on "the garbage can" to see if the opossum was alive - and it was. She promptly drove the animal to safety near the Douglas Trail, where it belongs.

We're glad this story has a happy ending for the opossum!