What Kind Of Critter Eats Another Critter In This Fashion?

[Teufelwald]

My Brother took me over to his new house he just bought...the woods come right up to the backyard...we found a opossum with just the head left and the intestines in a pile next to it...and the bladder...and that was all that was left of the critter.....just struck me odd the way it was laid out?

[NONYA]

Probably a chubachabra,they hardly ever eat the bladders of their victims!

[Ray Ford]

My Brother took me over to his new house he just bought...the woods come right up to the backyard...we found a opossum with just the head left and the intestines in a pile next to it...and the bladder...and that was all that was left of the critter.....just struck me odd the way it was laid out?

Teu,

I grew up--as much as I ever did--very poor.  Obtaining dog feed for my dogs was a major problem, so I got an idea: I would catch 'possums to feed my hounds. I caught one, axed it into three pieces, and gave a piece to each dog.  They wouldn't touch it.  I caught another one, axed it into three pieces, cooked it, and gave a piece to each dog.  Again, they wouldn't touch it.  A 'posssum will eat about anything, but the only thing that I know of that will eat a 'possum is a person--a man. (I don't know about Chupacabras.)

That critter could have been field dressed by someone.  They might have cut off the head, removed the intestines and bladder, and took the rest home--maybe!  When I was a kid, when we were on an all-day Squirrel hunt, we would so field dress the Squirrels.  It allowed the carcass to cool and greatly slowed down the spoiling process. We left the hide on to protect the meat.  We left the head on because lots of people like squirrel brains.  Never heard of anyone eating 'possum brains. 

A few years ago, the women in a church that I pastored published a cookbook of their favorite recipes.  As a kind of joke, I made up a recipe for cooking 'possum and put it into the book.  The recipe: Dress the critter and wash it very clean.  Boil the critter a spell--until as much fat as possible is cooked out.  (The fatiness is the problem with cooking a 'possum.)  Throw out the boil water--or pour it in the slop bucket for for the hogs.  Allow the critter to drain.  Put the boiled 'possum in a baking pan and pack a dry dressing mix under, around, and over it. (The dressing mix will absorb residual fat.)  Bake it a spell.  Serve.  Should be something you can eat.

The traditional way to cook a 'possum is to bake it packed in yams--sweet potatoes.  For many southern Blacks and poor Whites, 'possums, and yams, were the difference between being fed and going hungry. (My ole momma could put sweet taters, already baked, into a iron skillet, pour syrup over them, and fry them down into something like candy....  Wish I had some!)

I did see a dog trying to eat a 'possum once, but I'll make another post on that.

Did the critter appear to have been chewed up or cut up?

[Ranger J]

Years ago I used to do some trapping.  When we would catch an animal and skin it, if we did not need the carcass for bait we would leave it in the woods.  Raccoons, foxes, muskrats and mink carcasses would disappear overnight.  On the rare occasion we bothered to skin a possum we would throw the carcass in the woods and it would lie there for weeks.  Other than some humans the only thing that will eat a possum is probably another possum.

RJ

[SHOOTALL]

your brother live in BF land ?
did you notice if the head looked cut or chewed off !
sounds like someone had a wild game dinner or cook out !

[Teufelwald]

My Brother took me over to his new house he just bought...the woods come right up to the backyard...we found a opossum with just the head left and the intestines in a pile next to it...and the bladder...and that was all that was left of the critter.....just struck me odd the way it was laid out?

Teu,

I grew up--as much as I ever did--very poor.  Obtaining dog feed for my dogs was a major problem, so I got an idea: I would catch 'possums to feed my hounds. I caught one, axed it into three pieces, and gave a piece to each dog.  They wouldn't touch it.  I caught another one, axed it into three pieces, cooked it, and gave a piece to each dog.  Again, they wouldn't touch it.  A 'posssum will eat about anything, but the only thing that I know of that will eat a 'possum is a person--a man. (I don't know about Chupacabras.)

That critter could have been field dressed by someone.  They might have cut off the head, removed the intestines and bladder, and took the rest home--maybe!  When I was a kid, when we were on an all-day Squirrel hunt, we would so field dress the Squirrels.  It allowed the carcass to cool and greatly slowed down the spoiling process. We left the hide on to protect the meat.  We left the head on because lots of people like squirrel brains.  Never heard of anyone eating 'possum brains. 

A few years ago, the women in a church that I pastored published a cookbook of their favorite recipes.  As a kind of joke, I made up a recipe for cooking 'possum and put it into the book.  The recipe: Dress the critter and wash it very clean.  Boil the critter a spell--until as much fat as possible is cooked out.  (The fatiness is the problem with cooking a 'possum.)  Throw out the boil water--or pour it in the slop bucket for for the hogs.  Allow the critter to drain.  Put the boiled 'possum in a baking pan and pack a dry dressing mix under, around, and
over it. (The dressing mix will absorb residual fat.)  Bake it a spell.  Serve.  Should be something you can eat.

The traditional way to cook a 'possum is to bake it packed in yams--sweet potatoes.  For many southern Blacks and poor Whites, 'possums, and yams, were the difference between being fed and going hungry. (My ole momma could put sweet taters, already baked, into a iron skillet, pour syrup over them, and fry them down into something like candy....  Wish I had some!)

I did see a dog trying to eat a 'possum once, but I'll make another post on that.

Did the critter appear to have been chewed up or cut up?

It was just the head from the ears forward...and the intestines in a tidy pile next to it....and the bladder off to the side....I did not look to long because my stomach was empty and I had a headache....and the sight and smell was getting to me!

[Teufelwald]

Years ago I used to do some trapping.  When we would catch an animal and skin it, if we did not need the carcass for bait we would leave it in the woods.  Raccoons, foxes, muskrats and mink carcasses would disappear overnight.  On the rare occasion we bothered to skin a possum we would throw the carcass in the woods and it would lie there for weeks.  Other than some humans the only thing that will eat a possum is probably another possum.

RJ

Yeah.....I never liked opossums much...when I was a kid I was working on a friends farm...we was out in the field with the cattle.....and was fixing to use the tractor to pull a dead cow out of the river....all of a sudden I seen the cows stomach area moving...and out of the cows guts come a opossum...the sight darn near made me lose my cookies...nasty critters!

[SHOOTALL]

maybe a cult did a ceremony or something ! be careful wouldn't want a spell put on ya or something !

[Ray Ford]

I mentioned, in my above post, that I had only seen a dog try to eat a 'possum once and that I would post about it later:  A couple or so years ago, I attended my cousin's funeral.  On the way back home, I left the highway in favor of a section road in an area where I had hunted when I was in high school.  As I drove down the road, I saw a yellow and white pup in the ditch beside the road.  He was some distance from me when I first saw him.  I drove past him possibly a hundred yards, couldn't stand it, stopped and backed up to where he was.

When I stopped by him, he didn't run: he just looked up at me with an expression on his face that seemed to say, "Do I dare hope?"  He was a walking skeleton with a skin.  He, before I stopped, had been trying to tear into the haunch of a dead 'possum.  I opened the pickup door, got out and walked to him.  He made no effort to leave.  He just watched me as I approached.  I reached down, cupped my hand under his rib cage, picked him up, and returned to the pickup.  I put him in the seat next to me.  He laid down on my leg, put his head up against my belly, and let out an audible breath of air--as though he was so glad to be picked up.

I drove home, dipped him, wormed him, and fed him.  It was two or three weeks before he would not scarf down everything that we put in front of him.  He appeared to be about two months old, but in two months he appeared to be at least six months old.  I think that, when I picked him up, he was four or five months old but had never had enough to eat to grow.  My guess is that that starved Pit Bull puppy now weighs at least 60 pounds.  (Wouldn't hurt a flea--as far as I now know.  He and my half-Pit Bull female, Stretch, will co-habitate.)  He'll live out his life at my place--and he'll never see a fight pit. I may, however, take him Bigfoot hunting.  My sister was with me when I found him, and she started calling him Ditch because he was in a ditch when we first saw him.  The name stuck.

That he was trying to eat a 'possum tells you how starved he was. 

[SHOOTALL]

Ray Ford , bet vic. wishes he had treated dogs like you do !

[Teufelwald]

I mentioned, in my above post, that I had only seen a dog try to eat a 'possum once and that I would post about it later:  A couple or so years ago, I attended my cousin's funeral.  On the way back home, I left the highway in favor of a section road in an area where I had hunted when I was in high school.  As I drove down the road, I saw a yellow and white pup in the ditch beside the road.  He was some distance from me when I first saw him.  I drove past him possibly a hundred yards, couldn't stand it, stopped and backed up to where he was.

When I stopped by him, he didn't run: he just looked up at me with an expression on his face that seemed to say, "Do I dare hope?"  He was a walking skeleton with a skin.  He, before I stopped, had been trying to tear into the haunch of a dead 'possum.  I opened the pickup door, got out and walked to him.  He made no effort to leave.  He just watched me as I approached.  I reached down, cupped my hand under his rib cage, picked him up, and returned to the pickup.  I put him in the seat next to me.  He laid down on my leg, put his head up against my belly, and let out an audible breath of air--as though he was so glad to be picked up.

I drove home, dipped him, wormed him, and fed him.  It was two or three weeks before he would not scarf down everything that we put in front of him.  He appeared to be about two months old, but in two months he appeared to be at least six months old.  I think that, when I picked him up, he was four or five months old but had never had enough to eat to grow.  My guess is that that starved Pit Bull puppy now weighs at least 60 pounds.  (Wouldn't hurt a flea--as far as I now know.  He and my half-Pit Bull female, Stretch, will co-habitate.)  He'll live out his life at my place--and he'll never see a fight pit. I may, however, take him Bigfoot hunting.  My sister was with me when I found him, and she started calling him Ditch because he was in a ditch when we first saw him.  The name stuck.

That he was trying to eat a 'possum tells you how starved he was. 

Thanks for sharing the heart warming story Ray!
We sure do have a lot in common....I have a lost puppies story too....but no opossum connection!

[Ray Ford]

Teu,

Maybe we could talk Graybeard into starting a new forum entitled "Dog Stories."

[Graybeard]

I'm not a dog kinda person. I actually don't even like dogs in fact for the most part I dislike dogs. We have a dog forum already and that's as close as you're gona come on that idea. For what it's worth I dislike cats even more so than dogs. In fact you could say I hate cats where as I only dislike dogs. Well OK most dogs. I hate dobermans, chows and rots.

[Dee]

I like most all dogs, EXCEPT Pits and Chows. I don't actually hate these two breeds, and I feel bad when one comes on my property, and I shoot it. The chow I will give a chance to vacate, the pit is lights out. I have two male Jack Russells, and because of their bravado, I have to keep them fenced.
I have in my past career worked many dog bites, maulings, and smaller animals killed by the pit. If one loves his pit he had best keep it penned. It has no business being allowed to run loose, and should not be tolerated, if one loves their family and pets.

[NONYA]

I cant stand chows,rots and pits.I scored a double a few years back,caught a pit and a american bulldog chasing the horses I was caring for,the owner had warned the dog owner twice,I called him and told him where he could find his dogs(bottom of an irrigation ditch),he called the sheriff and the sheriff helped him recover his dead dogs and almost wrote him a ticket for dogs at large.

[SHOOTALL]

All dogs should remain on owners land PERIOD ! I like useful dogs ( read HUNTING AND GUARD ) ok seeing eye dogs to !
cats are targets of opportunity nothing more !
That said check out the cult thing we had such in VA. a few years back , a real eye opener ! and some wish to take my gun !

[Ray Ford]

I'm not a dog kinda person. I actually don't even like dogs in fact for the most part I dislike dogs. We have a dog forum already and that's as close as you're gona come on that idea. For what it's worth I dislike cats even more so than dogs. In fact you could say I hate cats where as I only dislike dogs. Well OK most dogs. I hate dobermans, chows and rots.

Am I correct?  What you are telling us is that you aren't going to start a forum on cats either--regardless of how many hits it would generate.

[Ray Ford]

I like most all dogs, EXCEPT Pits and Chows. I don't actually hate these two breeds, and I feel bad when one comes on my property, and I shoot it. The chow I will give a chance to vacate, the pit is lights out. I have two male Jack Russells, and because of their bravado, I have to keep them fenced.
I have in my past career worked many dog bites, maulings, and smaller animals killed by the pit. If one loves his pit he had best keep it penned. It has no business being allowed to run loose, and should not be tolerated, if one loves their family and pets.

Two things about Pits:

l. The average person should not own one.  I do own a Pit or two, but I'm not an average person: I know far more about Pits as a breed than most people do.  They have certain characteristics that have to be understood to avoid problems.  You will hear persons say, "It isn't the dog but the owner that is the problem!"  Those people are part of the problem.  They are partially right, but they are largely wrong.  They have the notion that Pits are cute little puppies that have to be taught to, and tortured into, fighting.  Those people are in the same category as the people who believe that they are being kind to their dogs when they over feed them into obesity--like they have typically done to themselves.  Those people are in the same category as the people who bring Chows, and other northern breeds, to Oklahoma and Texas and argue that they should not be sheared because "their hair insulates them from the heat."  (I am convinced that the irritability of Chows is caused by the heat they are often forced to endure.) Those people are in the same category as the people who come to look at your puppies, pick them up, and repeatedly kiss them in the mouth--kiss them until you are sick at your stomach.  (Puppies can catch things from people.) They are in the same category as....  I will not go on.

2. Pits CAN NOT be allowed to run loose. (Yes, Graybeard, I'm "shouting" that.)  There is another category of people who believe that it is cruel and inhumane to chain up, or pen up, a dog.  ALL dogs should be taught to be tied and to be penned.  To not do so is cruelty: to not do so usually, eventually leads to the dog suffering death or injury.

In most circumstances, for their own safety, dogs should not be allowed to roam free.  (See the thread on "Town Dogs Packing.")
 

[SHOOTALL]

ray ford , couldn't say ( never did ) you must have me confused with someone else !
For the most part i think we agree !
and my little saying i hope people see the fallacy in buying others thru. gifts when in reality in the long run they will be owned by the gift giver ! but if people start to see that then the democrats will go away or change tactics !

[Ray Ford]

I cant stand chows,rots and pits.I scored a double a few years back,caught a pit and a american bulldog chasing the horses I was caring for,the owner had warned the dog owner twice,I called him and told him where he could find his dogs(bottom of an irrigation ditch),he called the sheriff and the sheriff helped him recover his dead dogs and almost wrote him a ticket for dogs at large.

Nonya, I have a question.  How is it that a Pit and an American--both Bulldog breeds--were packed?  Puts me in mind of an incident that was reported on TV as a "pack" of Pits having attacked a kid on a bike near Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  The camera crew panned the several captured animals, and I watched closely.  Not one was a Pit.  One did appear to be part Pit.  Pits do not usually pack up.  Put 5 or 6 Pits together, and they are usually too busy fighting each other to engage in other activities.  Put Pits together, and you usually end up with only one Pit. There are some Pits that will cohabitate with other dogs, but it is rare to see one that will cohabitate with another Bulldog.  You'll occasionally/often see Pits that will not attack a dog of non-Bulldog breeding, but, when another Bulldog is led up, the fight is on.  Many of them seem to just know what their opponent is supposed to be.  A really professional Pit man will not use off-breed dogs as "bait" dogs: they fight differently--if they fight at all.

While few law enforcement people would be likely to file charges against someone protecting themselves or other animals, in most places, a person can be prosecuted for "intentionally causing the death" of a dog or other animals?  Most people, in rural Oklahoma and in the circumstance that you described, don't call the owner, and, if asked, they don't know what happened to those dogs that were running their stock.

[Ray Ford]

All dogs should remain on owners land PERIOD ! I like useful dogs ( read HUNTING AND GUARD ) ok seeing eye dogs to !
cats are targets of opportunity nothing more !
That said check out the cult thing we had such in VA. a few years back , a real eye opener ! and some wish to take my gun !

Shootall, I largely agree with you that dogs should not be allowed to roam free--except under certain circumstances.  (There are many dogs that are allowed to roam free but will not leave their owner's property.  I knew of a Blue Heeler that went with the farm when the owner sold out.  I knew of an English Shepherd that never left his owner's 10 acres except when he had to go.  He would then go through the barbed wire fence a few feet over on the neighbor!)  But I would expand your list of useful dogs.  I might include Chico, the little chocolate Chihuahua that gets up on my belly after I've eaten a sandwich in my recliner and cleans the crumbs off my chest.  I'm a messy eater. 

Incidentally, most vets will tell you that the little Mexican dogs are the most vicious dogs they have to deal with.  If they weighed 80 pounds, they would have to be kept in steel cages. 

I don't hate cats.  I'm not a cat person, but I, in some was, admire and respect them.  They do, however, pose a significant threat to small animals and birds, and feral cats probably do need to be killed out where possible.

I'm not sure what you are talking about when you refer to cult activity, but, a few years ago, I had a red Border Collie stolen out of my backyard in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and, I believe, ritually killed in Cushing, Oklahoma.
 

[Ray Ford]

ray ford , couldn't say ( never did ) you must have me confused with someone else !
For the most part i think we agree !
and my little saying i hope people see the fallacy in buying others thru. gifts when in reality in the long run they will be owned by the gift giver ! but if people start to see that then the democrats will go away or change tactics !

You are right: I scrambled one of my responses to posts.  I have since "modified" it.

[SHOOTALL]

like i said keep them on their owners land !
on the east coast a few in VA. a "cult " was stealing animals and cutting them up in lets say unusual ways . Some cows were taken !
there are some sick puppies in this world !
and ya'll keep any dog or cat you wish , if i have a dog ( and i do ) it will hunt ( and it does ) and stay under control !
to me the dog is a tool ! one i feed for services !

[Ray Ford]

Now, back to field-dressed 'possums.

[NONYA]

In MT if you catch dogs chasing livestock or wild game they are fair game,they can be killed on site and we do,I dont care if its a chiuwawa or a pitbull.We had a huge german Shepard cross chasing the elk out of our alfalfa once so we called the F&G,they told us it would be way more efficient if we took care of it for them,we did,the next day that dog carcass was flat as a pancake,I guess the elk took advantage of the dogs situation (DEAD) to get revenge.

[SHOOTALL]

NONYA , around here we go by the 3 Ss , shoot , shovel and shut up !
that dog was flat cause you let the air out ! HA ! HA ! HA !

[singleVI]

Ive caught opossums in live traps using possum pieces for bait.

[Travis Morgan]

(The fatiness is the problem with cooking a 'possum.) 

Being giant rats is the problem with cooking a possum! YUCK!

[Travis Morgan]

Two things about Pits:

l. The average person should not own one.  I do own a Pit or two, but I'm not an average person: I know far more about Pits as a breed than most people do.  They have certain characteristics that have to be understood to avoid problems.  You will hear persons say, "It isn't the dog but the owner that is the problem!"  Those people are part of the problem.  They are partially right, but they are largely wrong.  They have the notion that Pits are cute little puppies that have to be taught to, and tortured into, fighting.  Those people are in the same category as the people who believe that they are being kind to their dogs when they over feed them into obesity--like they have typically done to themselves. 

    I pretty much agree; I have a Border Collie. He's smart as hell, and really well trained. Knows his commands, loves working livestock and will do damn near anything I ask of him. But he bit my kid on TWO occassions. Both times, they were laying on the boy's bed, just watching TV, when Boomer just went after him, and bit him in the face. No growl, no warning, no nothing.
    We figured the first time, the boy might have rolled over on his leg, or somehow hurt him. This dog will fight as hard as he can to protect my family, but for whatever reason, he went after the boy twice.
    I picked this dog for a reason; he had a lot of "eye". He'd stare you down, even as a pup. He was bred to eat cows when need be. This inbred instinct was put there for a reason, but the instinct got displaced somehow, and had horrible consequences. This is how the perfectly lovable pit bull puppy goes batshit one day and kills somebody. He wasn't abused, he was well trained, and he loes every member of my family.
    Unfortunately, no matter what you tell your family, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. I teach the wife and kid the commands to use, the body posture, tone of voice, etc., and my wife will still come up with a four sentence command that sounds like a half-assed request. The boy's not all that assertive, either. Looking back, it was just a matter of time until the dog asserted his dominance.
    In a wolf pack, as soon as one member of the pack shows weakness, the others pounce. The kill and eat him right there. Certain breeds ain't too damned far from the wolf pack.

[ratgunner]

When I was a kid and used to trap I skinned a few possums,and it would be darn hard to even think about eating one.BLAH.