Cat Found!!!
October 26, 2007 2:46 PM   Subscribe

Cat Found!!! Not very friendly, I think he might be scared.
posted by GuyZero (91 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
I suspect the comments in this thread won't be friendly either.
posted by ninjew at 2:50 PM on October 26, 2007


LOLOPOSSUM
posted by HyperBlue at 2:51 PM on October 26, 2007 [2 favorites]


douchebag found!!!
posted by quonsar at 2:51 PM on October 26, 2007 [3 favorites]


Please tell me that this is some sort of guerrilla art exhibit, and that no one is really that dumb.

Because if so, my back yard is full of angry 'cats'.
posted by quin at 2:52 PM on October 26, 2007


Aaaw, what a nice, sweet kit...O SHIT JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY
posted by porn in the woods at 2:53 PM on October 26, 2007 [11 favorites]


ps. i'll find my opossum
posted by HyperBlue at 2:55 PM on October 26, 2007 [23 favorites]


"I call the big one Bitey"
posted by Kattullus at 2:55 PM on October 26, 2007 [22 favorites]


Ah look at the lil kitty, aren't you precAAAARGHGETITOFFMYFACEGETITOFF
posted by PenDevil at 2:56 PM on October 26, 2007 [7 favorites]


I think if they have one of the kids rub kitty's tummy he'll settle right down.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:56 PM on October 26, 2007


You win.
posted by yerfatma at 2:57 PM on October 26, 2007


It really is a cat. It's just playing possum.
posted by Floydd at 2:59 PM on October 26, 2007 [7 favorites]


The best part of threads like this is wondering what the deletion reason will be.
posted by turaho at 2:59 PM on October 26, 2007 [4 favorites]


Called the number (for free) and it's just a normal, very boring message. I was hoping it would be something that would extend the joke.
posted by aerotive at 3:00 PM on October 26, 2007


OH HAI I CAN HAS RABIES?
posted by wowbobwow at 3:04 PM on October 26, 2007 [3 favorites]


Welcome to Metafilter, the community sideblog.
posted by metaly at 3:06 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


Still, they do have the capacity to be very sweet.
posted by quin at 3:09 PM on October 26, 2007 [3 favorites]


I knew a married couple, about my parents' age, that were sort of old-school hippies and had one of these as a pet. His name was Mr. Kisses and the wife used to walk him around the neighborhood on a leash at night. It was a trippy site to see that sort of waif-ish, distinguished hippie lady, hair down to her waist, in a long gauzy dress, flouncing down the street in the moonlight with THAT on the end of a leash. She later told me that this particular pet was unbelievably stupid, but that his personality radiated pure love on a telepathic level.
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:09 PM on October 26, 2007 [6 favorites]


Holy crap, I just looked at the phone number. That's just one area code over from mine, somewhere in L.A. county. I wonder if my girlfriend would be interested in having a "cat."
posted by infinitywaltz at 3:13 PM on October 26, 2007


infinitywaltz - it's a perfect belated sweetest day gift, you know.
posted by desjardins at 3:18 PM on October 26, 2007


So we used to set up traps in my Berkeley Hills home when I was younger in order to catch skunks, raccoons, and possums. They were simple yet effective contraptions - youv'e seen the type! - where a piece of food is placed deep within the belly of the trap, and once the creature touched the food, WHAMBO! The door shut.

We'd have to call over pest control, of course, especially if it was a raccoon (vicious bastards) or skunks (smelly buttheads), but on the rare occasion we caught a possum we'd just let the poor ugly things crawl away. I used to be struck by how ugly, fast, and smelly they were, and how they were so frightened that I almost cried.

Usually, though, we'd catch our own cat, who was called Nigel Strangeways.
posted by ORthey at 3:19 PM on October 26, 2007 [4 favorites]


*YOU'VE LOL
posted by ORthey at 3:20 PM on October 26, 2007


I have to be honest; I didn't know what the animal was from the picture.

With that said, it's clearly not a cat.
posted by Target Practice at 3:23 PM on October 26, 2007


The best part of threads like this is wondering what the deletion reason will be.

Don't be/this isn't a pussy.
posted by hal9k at 3:33 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


OK, now I'm confused.

Maybe Katherine Harris lost her pet.
posted by fleetmouse at 3:34 PM on October 26, 2007


This is kind of like linking to a craigslist post, only even LESS best-of-the-web.
posted by dersins at 3:40 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


I thought that was a rat until I started reading the comments. Well, that's what growing up in the desert will do.

I always thought opossum were cute until I actually saw one. Maybe they are cute up close, but they looked a lot like vermin after that point.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:43 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


I don't know, I laughed. Why leave a real number (with initials) if it's a joke? And the phone message is still going. I figured it'd be filled to capacity with snarky 'yo! it's not a cat!' messages by now.
posted by Busithoth at 3:44 PM on October 26, 2007


Well ya know, where I'm king this sign would not at all be out of place. Some people might wonder why they kept him as a pet instead of food...
posted by ZachsMind at 3:45 PM on October 26, 2007


Well, thank god for this post, because now I have a place to dump out this Batter Blaster link I'd been sitting on.
posted by boo_radley at 3:53 PM on October 26, 2007


man, american possums are scary-looking things.

australian possums, otoh, are cute as all fuck.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:00 PM on October 26, 2007


I've done better. {PDF}
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:03 PM on October 26, 2007


Cuteness is in the eye of the beholder. The neanderthal here is much more handsome than the human.
posted by damn dirty ape at 4:06 PM on October 26, 2007


LOST OPOSSUM. ANSWERS TO "GRAF." MAY BITE.
posted by katillathehun at 4:08 PM on October 26, 2007


I really like opossums. I used to live along a river and would step out at night for a cigarette. The opossums would walk along the river bank looking for food so intensely that they would walk right into me if I didn't move. It was always funny to see them startle, pause and then carry on as if nothing had happened when they finally realized that I wasn't just another tree.
posted by 517 at 4:13 PM on October 26, 2007


now I have a place to dump out this Batter Blaster link I'd been sitting on.

From the Batter Blaster site:

"With it's unique, pressurized, patent pending process..."

There copyrighter's shoulld be shot.
posted by dersins at 4:14 PM on October 26, 2007


Possums are beautiful and make wonderful pets. They are quite clean, and if you shampoo them they puff up like a little cotton ball. They are affectionate and will eat whatever you eat. Observe, the heart-wrenching tale of a boy and his poor, crippled possum: Baby.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 4:20 PM on October 26, 2007


I walked out one night to take out the trash and this was caught my eye.
I screamed.
posted by Dr. Zira at 4:24 PM on October 26, 2007


Baby_Balrog, watching that fat gimp possum flail around to the sound of bad hair metal makes me want to open a vein. So. Thanks for that little dose of the void.
posted by felix betachat at 4:29 PM on October 26, 2007 [4 favorites]


aw, c'mon guys. he's just as god made him.

i really think that's a kid's poster. which seems a *little* more excusable, to me. i mean, what adult would put her initials on the poster? and what kid wouldn't?
posted by CitizenD at 4:30 PM on October 26, 2007


dersins, i know. like, what is it with people who cannot tell the difference between cats, opossums, contractions, and possessives? But don't worry, I emailed those batterblaster people that it's not a cat.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 4:31 PM on October 26, 2007


Also, are you still in Hyde Park? Have you been following the saga of Baby, the tame starling with the twisted foot? A very sad and desperate woman is posting signs all over the neighborhood about her lost starling who, "knows nothing of cats and dogs and cars." The rewards keep increasing, the highlighting of keywords gets more ragged. The last batch of fliers has the ominous phrase, "winter is coming" at the bottom.
posted by felix betachat at 4:32 PM on October 26, 2007


WHO FOUND MY CAT WHO TOOK MY CAT
posted by louche mustachio at 4:36 PM on October 26, 2007


There copyrighter's shoulld be shot.

Alot. On the other hand, I have seldom seen such enthusiasm in recipe form:

Serve with a cream sauce and green salad!!!!
posted by metric space at 4:36 PM on October 26, 2007


Felix: YES! That's hilarious. I felt like I was hallucinating when I saw those. I'm tempted to just grab one, stuff it in a box and give it to her. The starlings on campus are basically tame to begin with.

Also, I've heard they're delicious. You know. Baked in pies.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 4:42 PM on October 26, 2007


Well, I enjoyed it. Thanks for the laugh, GuyZero!

We had a mama possum in our backyard bushes one year during a horrible ice storm. She was crouching on a thick branch, with her babies clinging to her back. They all looked wet, cold and miserable. I wished I could have taken them inside, but I knew I couldn't chance it with my pets. So I left her some cat food and hoped for the best. The next day, the storm cleared, the cat food was gone, and the possums were still living in the bush. They stuck around for quite awhile and were a lot of fun to watch.
posted by amyms at 4:48 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


I miss my possum visitor.
posted by emelenjr at 4:52 PM on October 26, 2007


LOST CAT: Looks like a huge floating ball of leaves. Answers to the name Peaches. Intonates with the booming voice of Leonard Nimoy.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:52 PM on October 26, 2007 [4 favorites]


Wow - found on my street in LA! Between the 'Lost Cat' notice and the YouTube 'Baby' tribute, this is now my favorite post of the day. It almost makes me want to adopt one myself, or at least go outside to Franklin Avenue and OH SWEET MERCIFUL MOTHER OF CHRIST THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! EVERYWHERE!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
posted by skammer at 4:55 PM on October 26, 2007




Dr. Zira writes "I walked out one night to take out the trash and this was caught my eye."

"When I say "encountered", I mean discovering it by noticing that there is suddenly a long, ratlike thing standing a foot away from my face."

Aha! See, they do look like bigass rats.
posted by krinklyfig at 5:00 PM on October 26, 2007


ossum ossie possum
posted by jessamyn at 5:06 PM on October 26, 2007


Still, they do have the capacity to be very sweet.

Especially with a Jack Daniel's glaze1.


1. I lived in The South for far too long.
posted by xthlc at 5:09 PM on October 26, 2007


That's my cat! His name is AwesomePossum, so I get why you're all confused.
And here's the pic to prove it!
posted by lioness at 5:10 PM on October 26, 2007 [2 favorites]


Possums... hmmm...

when I was a kid (In Michigan) we used to find them trudging across the middle of frozen lakes... they were really well beyond their territory and didn't deal well with the cold... usually the tails were pretty much frostbitten off...

Not too smart....

On the other hand, my sister, the biology teacher, had a couple that we kept as pets... actually pretty good animals in that regard...

but..still...not too smart...
posted by HuronBob at 5:29 PM on October 26, 2007


I found one of these in my dog the other day.
posted by jamaro at 4:11 PM


I thought inside of a dog it was too dark to read.

(hmm, why does mefi think my comment is blank?)
posted by oats at 5:40 PM on October 26, 2007


Mefi thought your comment was blank because you formatted "posted by" with the <> tag.
posted by dersins at 5:42 PM on October 26, 2007


Er.

The small tag.
posted by dersins at 5:43 PM on October 26, 2007


Him name is dead-playin gray cat.
posted by chimaera at 5:54 PM on October 26, 2007


Yah, Rule #16b is still on the table... I can't decide if the uncuteness of this outweighs the cuteness of this.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:03 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


There are a lot of these in Austin. One place I lived, they used the sewers to move from place to place and one night I stepped out of my car in the parking spot and saw a line—must have been more than six—possum faces peeking over the edge of the curb above the drain looking at me. It was more cute than spooky.

And the last place I lived, there were possums that would regularly walk my backyard fence. They walk along a top of a fence, as in Dr. Zira's photo, quite gracefully as a cat does, not how you'd expect from the photos (I'd expect a waddle).
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 6:47 PM on October 26, 2007


Okay, we know that wasn't a cat. So what's this?
posted by wendell at 7:01 PM on October 26, 2007


I once had a conversation with a guy who worked at a memorial park, who said "Possums will eat through anything" and he had a look on his face that told me I really didn't want to hear any more....
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 7:20 PM on October 26, 2007


One of the funniest episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies involves Mrs Drysdale finding out the recipe for Grannie's stew she had just consumed involved Jethro trapping possum down by the cement pond.
posted by hortense at 7:21 PM on October 26, 2007


I live in Florida and at this time of night I bet I could walk out my door and throw a rock and not miss one of these nasty marsupials. The damn things are blind as bats and that's why so many people happen to just walk up on them. They also have a tendency to get corned by dogs and instead of playing dead they usually wobble and hiss a bunch.

Nasty creatures.
posted by photoslob at 7:25 PM on October 26, 2007


Soon we will see copycat posters.
posted by Tube at 7:27 PM on October 26, 2007


Mmmm'Bop! Aw Yeah!
posted by Balisong at 7:52 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


My dad once stumbled upon a possum on our back fence -- and, to quote Dave Barry, I am not making this up -- he thought it was a cat too. He even ran inside to get some bologna for it to eat.

My mom had to rush outside and convince my dad that the hissing, red eyed devil-spawn didn't exactly meet the standard definition of "cat".
posted by Avenger at 8:08 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


This reminds me of my great idea to name a band "LOST DOG REWARD"
posted by yhbc at 8:14 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


I think Baby_Balrog just converted me from possum-hater to possum-lover with that Baby link. Damn you, Balrog!
posted by Locative at 8:42 PM on October 26, 2007


My brother-in-law recently rescued and tried to nurse back to health one of these horrifying creatures. He thought maybe it got into a rumble with one of the neighborhood cats who hangs out in his back yard, though I'm thinking it was a raccoon that got into it with the possum, because the possum's front arm was supposedly torn off (!!!). More power to whatever creature was trying to finish off the stinky lil bastard, I say.
posted by brain cloud at 8:54 PM on October 26, 2007


My dog growing up, an Alaskan malamute, was a notorious opossum killer, and once killed an entire...um...pack? Flock? Gaggle? Anyway, she killed a group of juvenile opossums as they attempted to cross from one side of our yard to the other. My parents and I woke up to the sight of half a dozen dead opossums in a line across the yard, each about eight feet from the next.

My parents' current dog, also an Alaskan malamute, loves opossums and has no killer instinct whatsoever. She finds the babies, and when they play dead, she carries them around in her mouth and puts them in a pile with her stuffed toys. Then she'll just sit there with the poor petrified thing between her paws, licking its head, until my folks bring her into the house. Inevitably, within a half hour or so, the opossum is gone, its death-feigning tactic a success.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:10 PM on October 26, 2007


A group of possums is called a passel.
posted by Mroz at 9:20 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


"A passel of possums." I love it! Thanks, Mroz.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:26 PM on October 26, 2007


Thanks for making my night GuyZero. I can't stop laughing.
posted by spacelux at 9:47 PM on October 26, 2007


A possum surprised looks like Jimmy Durante looking up from the piano.
posted by pracowity at 10:45 PM on October 26, 2007 [2 favorites]



A possum surprised looks like Jimmy Durante looking up from the piano.


Holy crap, that's uncanny!
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:48 PM on October 26, 2007 [1 favorite]


Most critters with pouches — shrews, 'roos, wallabies —
Come from far southern lands, the Antipodes.
Being at the wrong latitude,
This opossum with attitude
Earns a misdiagnosis: cat-match disease.
posted by rob511 at 11:10 PM on October 26, 2007


Carve Dat Possum:
The possum meat am good to eat.
Carve him to the heart.
You'll always find him good and sweet.
Carve him to the heart.
My dog did bark and I went to see
Carve him to the heart.
And there was a possum up that tree.
Carve him to the heart.

I reached up for to pull him in.
Carve him to the heart.
The possum he begun to grin.
Carve him to the heart.
I carried him home and dressed him off.
Carve him to the heart.
I hung him that night in the frost.
Carve him to the heart.

The way to cook the possum sound:
Carve him to the heart.
First parboil him, then bake him brown.
Carve him to the heart.
Lay sweet potatoes in the pan.
Carve him to the heart.
The sweetest meat in all the land
Carve him to the heart.

Carve that possum,
Carve that possum, children.
Carve that possum,
Carve him to the heart.
Oh, carve that possum,
Carve that possum, children.
Carve that possum,
Carve him to the heart.
posted by pracowity at 11:54 PM on October 26, 2007


the babies are undeniably cute. the grown-ups, not so much. my friends' brother used to save them when they'd been nudged (not flattened) by cars. he would let them wander the house at night when they were well enough to get around. we'd be playing cards at midnight and hear the slow click-click-click of their claws, and the unpleasant lip-smacking when they found some food. very unsettling. we never mistook them for cats, though.
posted by killy willy at 12:00 AM on October 27, 2007


A group of possums is called a passel.

An Irish possum is called an O'possum.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 3:56 AM on October 27, 2007


"Obviously, you're not a golfer."

I was driving one night on an Indiana road towards some now-forgotten destination, when an opossum was illuminated by my headlights. It was sitting up in the middle of the other side of the road like a meerkat, chewing, and I noticed at its feet the corpse of a fellow opossum. Opossum roadkill is, of course, a common sight in the area, since playing dead does little against a half-ton pickup roaring 70 mph down a rural route. But this was the first time I had ever seen a display of opossum cannibalism.

There were two corpses in the road when I passed on my return trip. Those who live by the sword die by it, I guess.
posted by moonbiter at 4:53 AM on October 27, 2007


National Opossum Society: "Cannibalism is not a natural behavior of opossums - these animals are sick. Investigate."

That's right. Investigate. Now!
posted by pracowity at 5:37 AM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]


Noted, although: "If opossum will not eat all foods offered, something is WRONG. Investigate."

This, I think, is a paradox.
posted by moonbiter at 7:27 AM on October 27, 2007


omg i just laughed so hard i almost crapped myself!

that is one pissed-off kitty!
posted by sexyrobot at 7:54 AM on October 27, 2007


Oh GOD! Get the ROUS'S away from me!!!!!!!one111!!!!
posted by Debaser626 at 7:55 AM on October 27, 2007


No Pogo references yet?
posted by evilcolonel at 8:40 AM on October 27, 2007


When I lived in Kansas I used to let my Siamese cat go outside. She was usually pretty good about coming in for the night when called, but one evening around dusk she was sitting at the edge of my front yard and refused to come to me. So I went back inside and after another 20 minutes or so decided to try again. I was standing on the front step and while it had gotten dark out I could make her out in the same spot in the front yard. She still wouldn't come to me, so I walked towards her. She started doing that thing cats do when you're trying to catch them where they trot just slightly faster than you're walking, and I didn't want to just jump at her because I figured she'd bolt. So I was following her all around the yard, bent forward, my hands about a foot behind her, hoping she'd stop for a moment so I could make a grab. Instead, she headed around the side of the house and jumped up on the fence surrounding my backyard.

Just then the motion light on the side of my house flipped on and I was about three inches from grabbing a possum. And my cat was sitting on my back porch waiting patiently to be let in.

In another house I had back in Kansas, there was a possum who kept climbing into the space beneath my kitchen sink because of a hole leading to the crawl space under the house left by some crappy plumber my cheap landlord had hired. He'd get into the garbage can, and my roommate and I would argue over whose turn it was to go slap a lid on the garbage can and dump the possum out in the backyard. We finally moved the garbage and put a bungee cord over the cabinet doors so he'd stop getting out into our kitchen.
posted by apollonia6 at 9:42 AM on October 27, 2007 [3 favorites]


I think the reason this made me laugh out loud for so long is that the picture on the right looks like a flat-bed possum scan. The thought of that scene, combined with the possum's expression just kills me.

Remember cat-scan.com? (sadly, now offline)
posted by dylanjames at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2007


Ooh, cat-scan.com takes me wayback.
posted by book at 12:25 PM on October 27, 2007


The best thing about possums, mind, is how they freak out foreign visitors:
"Ho hum, so this is the US. Holy Shit that's a huge rat!!! Help, it's outside the house!"
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:20 PM on October 27, 2007


WTF is the picture on the right? I have no idea.
posted by frecklefaerie at 7:43 PM on October 28, 2007


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