"Do they really play dead when their scared?"

"Do they really play dead when they're scared?"

A guy from my squad and I were way out in the middle of the boon-docks one night while nothing was really going on, when two possums came ambling out of the woods and were just hanging out nearby. I watched them curiously for a few minutes and asked my buddy "Do those things really play dead when they get scared?" "I don't know" he replied. "do you want to get out and chase them to see if it works?" I asked. "Sure".

We got out of our patrol cars and ran at the two animals as fast as we could, one of the forest creatures shimmied up a tree, leaving the two of us in hot pursuit of the other. We chased him into a corner of sorts, it had nowhere else to run. We've got him now I thought to myself. Now I'm a big guy I stand 6 feet 5 inches barefoot and weigh about 225 pounds and this little rodent really should be no match for me. The possum turned to face us and in short order opened it's mouth and let out this god awful hiss, and began running straight at the two of us. Of course like the brave men we both are we screamed like ten year old girls and ran the other way. I thought I was going to pull a Duke Brothers and slide across the hood of my car to get away from it, when it found a small culvert running under the road and went inside.

We both got into our cars faster than I would have thought possible and sat there feeling stupid for several moments. Finally I looked over at him and said "Man did you see the teeth on that thing?" Trying to save some face from having just been run into a car by a creature just slightly larger than my foot. I did feel ridiculous, I was carrying a gun at the time, it just didn't seem right to hurt the brave little guy though. I guess it can't all be guts and glory all the time.