Brief encounter with an Opossum!

by Avis
(Oshawa, Ontario, Canada)

Opossum

It had rained heavily all day today (June 12th 2023) and it was early evening, not dark yet but quite gloomy due to rain.

I went out to my back garden to check my veggies that I'd planted, and to look at some other stuff, and saw movement behind my bushes at the fence line. I only saw it for a minute or two, but I could see the side view. It was quite chunky, like a large cat. Moving along slowly, I'd say bumbling along really. I'd seen Opossums in photos, and I'm pretty sure that's what it was.


I noted it looked sharp at both ends! Pointy face, heavy set body, and point long tail. Only thing was it was white from what I could tell, might've had a smudge on it's side which could've been dirt. Not that furry, tail had no fur.

I went inside to look it up as I wasn't too comfortable being that close, as I didn't know anything about them and thought it might be aggressive.

Then after reading here I got brave and went back out to see if I could get a photo, but it had gone. This is the first time I've seen an Opossum live in the wild, and never have I seen one near my house or in the yard, in 27 years!

Do they come in white, as the Virginia ones all seem to be grey with white faces? This one I think had black eyes not albino pink eyes, I felt also that it was male for some reason.

Maybe I'll see it again and get a photo! I've had raccoons living in my yard with 3 babies, seen hawks plucking birds in my yard, skunks, saw a red fox go by, have chipmunks galore, rabbits, but never saw an Opossum! I live in Oshawa, next to a park. I hope it doesn't move into my shed that's all! :)