PLEASE NOTE: In the real world that inspired this cartoon, no animals were harmed!
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Live Ones – inspired by Kira of Winchester, VA
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
LOVE this! My ex’s Doberman caught a possom in the yard and actually brought it into the house and set it down in the kitchen (to show off his find, of course). My ex thought it was dead so he went to get a bag from the garage to dispose of the body… Apparently, it was just “playing possum.” By the time he got back to the kitchen, it was hiding under a chair. You can imagine the fun that ensued thereafter…
This reminds me of the time my greyhound Lily brought a very unhappy groundhog into the house. We were able to throw a blanket over the poor thing and let him go back into the woods behind our house. I never figured out how he got into our fenced yard though!
The 2 young possums that Kira used to carry around while they played dead are huge now and do not come into the dog yard but do show up every night to check what food has been left out for the ferals and birds.
I love this one! My bassets do the same thing! Rabbits, mice, even an occasional squirrel. But unfortunately we have a doggie door and they sometimes end up in the house. Yuck!
Somewhat different scenario when you live with terriers trained in Earthdog…
Oh do I know this one quite too well but it was not my dogs. I have a doggie door and the dogs just bring in rocks and tree branches (ugh another story), but my cat brings in live birds into the home as a present for me but then the dogs get ahold of it. Poor little birdies never had a chance.
I love this one, it really made me smile.
This is SO my house! LOL Just like the other posters, I have a dog door. I’ve found baby possums walking around in Katie’s crate!! Katie is Hunter Deluxe and will catch anything that ventures in HER yard. Squirrels, birds and mice come in headless!! One of her many nicknames is Zombie Dobe cuz she must like the taste of BRAINS! EEwwww She doesn’t eat possum or raccoon for some reason.
This happened to us so many times!! Our male dobe Ruler used to bring us all manner of “Live Ones”. Damp, but unharmed. He never quite understood why we turned his offerings loose. LOL Brings back many memories!
I had almost the exact thing happen to me with my Blue Heeler. We took a nice walk through a neighbor that had a wooded area. She went into the wooded area and came out just like this picture with a possum!!! I had my arms raised just like in this cartoon to get her to drop it!! She had the same posture! I LOVE IT!!
My dogs think the “interactive toys” that try to get away and squeak when they bite them are the MOST fun! My Cattle Dog actually caught a rabbit and brought it in to eat it because it was about 2 degrees outside. That didn’t go over so well. He did spend DAYS trying to get a mole and when he finally did, he came trotting in SO proud! While he did get a treat in trade, my husband said he completely deflated and looked depressed when he saw my husband toss his “prize” over the back fence. He has since caught other moles, but doesn’t “share” them.
Like lyn, the scenario would be a bit different with my Dobes. I know this from experience. Fortunately my local animal control officer likes me and willingly disposes of the opossum as long as I bag it and leave it on the curb. Trust me, they weren’t playing possum, either. Now my Vizsla puppy has already caught and retrieved to hand two quail–unharmed–while out training. I don’t know what he would make of a opossum.
Oh, my dogs go bonkers chasing squirrels and chipmunks! But they are way too slow to catch them, thank goodness.
I’m glad no animals were harmed!
LOL! Luckly my greyhounds are too chicken to actually pick up the possums they find”dead” in the back yard. They just stand and stare at them until I am forced, in any weather, to go out there and literally drag them away!!
My lab, Giana, was always bringing in baby opossums and turning them loose. I have had to remove washers and dryers in order to “rescue” these little guys. Nothing is more fun than
having an opossum in the kitchen and 6 hunting dogs on the other side of the door. Her mother, Wanna, brought us a baby hummingbird that had fallen from the nest. He was very wet and very angry but totally unharmed. Living with dogs keeps one from getting bored!
Well, my dog brought me a deer from the woods she was so small and I tried to give her life back , but it didn’t work-out. I sill love Buddy no matter what….I love your web-page…Ed Gary
When I was a part time vet tech our practice did Wildlife Rehab. I had several litters of baby possums and some singles to raise — they’re really very nice little creatures. They’re interesting in that, unlike most other mammals, they haven’t evolved very much over the years.. possums living up north have a hard time because they aren’t made for the climate. Also, if they don’t have a huge lot of calcium in their diets it leaches from their bones at a certain age and cripples them– they only live an average of 2 years up north. I always figure they have a hard enough time without my dogs getting them, so I try to make sure there are good escape routes Out of my yard and usually go out an make noise before the dogs go out.
Hilarious! Reminds me off the neighbors dog that would got get himself a deer when he got to not liking dry dog food….one day the game warden showed up on HIS step……neither were impressed with one another
OMG, my Lhasa did this. You really don’t expect that breed to do much other than sit in your lap or keep your feet warm. Not mine. The big hunter.
I loved reading everyone elses doggie adventures too..we love them just way they are.
I know Kira and Alla quite well. That is what Alla would have told her……….I can hear her telling Kira that now!!!
I love this! We don’t get any opposums in the yard, but my three Great Pyrenees are great mouse and mole hunters….and thank goodness…no doggie doors!
This reminds me of the time our black lab had our new kitten in his mouth! The dog was walking up across the yard with the dangling limp body of a two month old kitten….naturally I went rushing out of the house screaming “Drop it! Drop it!” My thoughts were how am I going to explain this to our young son! The dog killed the kitten!! When I got closer, the dog dropped the kitten who immediately jumped to his feet and tried to climb back into the dog’s mouth! Needless to say, it took me quite a while to get over THAT incident!
My greyhound, Crystal, did that with a rabbit. not once but twice! She brought the rabbit up to us unhurt and dropped it at our feet. Rabbit got up and ran off and she got it again. Once more she dropped it at our feet. I’m telling the dumb bunny to play dead as hubby is trying to get dogs in house telling Angel she was a good dog.
Now she never did that with squirrels as they were mean. She would watch them bounce on a branch tormenting her and as they came down she’d jump up and would pluck them off the branch. They would bite each other but she learned one good shake of the head and she could kill it. She never killed any thing but squirrels.
On the other hand we did have one greyhound that ate a bird. I called the vet to see if it would hurt him and they wanted to know what type of bird was it. I’m telling them I don’t know as all I can see are the feet hanging out of his mouth and he isn’t letting me open his mouth to get it. He just walked past a bush and the bird flew out right into his mouth! That was one proud dog getting a bird in mid flight prancing around the yard while he ate it.
Our Alaskan sled dog husky Jupiter once tangled with a mole. She killed it, but not before the mole slashed her face up bad enough to require a visit to the vet to be stitched up. They are not to be messed with, and if you can keep your dogs separated from them, you will be doing both animals a favor!
I used to live in a second floor apartment, and leave my front door open so my cats Sid and Smudge could come in and out at will. Once time I was sitting at my desk and caught site of something approaching the food bowls out of the corner of my eye…it was not a cat, but a small possum. It visited regularly for a few months, the cats didn’t seem to mind, then it stopped coming. Months and months later I was asleep and though big furry Smudge had crawled into bed with me, but she smelled odd, and her fur was off and OMG, half the city of St. Augustine FL was likely awoken by by screams at realizing I was in bed with a huge possum, who of course took off like a bat out of hell. I started shutting the door after that.
This cartoon is so typical of my ferret. He will not play with any of the toys you buy him, he always gets into everything that he’s not supposed to.
Our boxer and english bulldog have brought everything from possum to ground hogs to the house. Ususally the possum are playing the same and once you get them to lay them down and make them go in the house the animal will eventually wander away. However, the groundhog is another story. We went outside to see what the ruckus was and there was our boxer with the butt of the groundhog in his mouth and the english bulldog with the head of the groundhog in hers. They were playing tug of war like it was a chew toy…I eventually got the groundhog away from them without any damage to either of them and the groundhog lived also; my broom didn’t fair as well, but that’s alright. Anytime afterward the dogs wouldn’t go out without sweeping the perimeter looking for that groundhog.