Possum Rescued From Toilet!

Posted by Alex in Animal on May 29, 2008 at 2:11 pm


Miss Cellania posted about a raccoon that had to be rescued after falling into a garbage dumpster … well, that’s nothing compared to the travail this critter had to go through:

When it comes to toilets, there’s a simple directional rule: everything goes downstream. When things move against the tide, then you have problems.

So as Tim Fraser was doing some laundry in his bathroom last Friday night, he became a wee bit disturbed when his toilet started spontaneously gurgling.

"I could see bubbles coming up and I thought ‘what the the hell is happening?’" he said, recalling that evening.

Then he caught sight of a grey, furry head with a pair of pointy ears and saucepan eyes emerging on this side of the s-bend.

Moments later there was a half-drowned possum sitting in his Fowler toilet bowl.

"It was like the toilet had given birth," he said.

And what did Tim do first? Why, he grabbed a digital camera, of course! And thanks to that, we have a YouTube clip.

Link (Photo: Tim Fraser) – via Fortean Times


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COMMENT

16 comments to "Possum Rescued From Toilet!"

  1. TT
    May 29th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Errrrrrrrrrr........... that's spelled

    OPOSSUM

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/opossum

  2. SenorMysterioso
    May 29th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    OMG call NASA!

  3. Cassie
    May 29th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Actually the story is from Australia so it would be "Possum" not Opossum.

  4. your_mum_goes_to_college
    May 29th, 2008 at 2:54 pm

    @TT

    Actually dude, it's Australian, so it's a possum. Looks like a brushtail possum to me.

  5. your_mum_goes_to_college
    May 29th, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    Kind of off topic, but man I hate links (one of the ads to the right) to bullsh*t IQ tests.
    THEY'RE BULLSH*T! All they do is give you an artificially high IQ score and then ask you for your credit card details so they can give you a detailed (bullsh*t) analysis of just HOW smart you are.

  6. SenorMysterioso
    May 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

    so go pick up an IQ test from a book store, they cost about $1

  7. your_mum_goes_to_college
    May 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

    Yeah, another bullsh*t IQ test. Real IQ tests are legally only allowed to be run, accessed, and scored by registered psychologists.
    And they cost a lot more than $1.

  8. Tempscire
    May 29th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Does any one actually ever say "opossum"? Pretty much every time I've heard it said the o- was left off.

    Also, "It was like the toilet had given birth," is a horrible mental image.

  9. Justin
    May 29th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    WOW! Ok this is one of those childhood fears I had of a rat swiming up the tube while I was doing my business. THANKS NEATORAMA NOW IM HUDDLING IN A CORNER CRYING! :)

  10. TT
    May 29th, 2008 at 10:25 pm

    Cassie - can you read?

  11. mrmark
    May 29th, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    if you click "we have a YouTube clip." Youtube clip link doesn't work :x

    give me a t-shirt i love neatorama :]

  12. Celeste
    May 30th, 2008 at 12:28 am

    @TT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opossum

    "They are commonly also called "possums," though that term is also applied to Australian fauna of the suborder Phalangeriformes. The Virginia Opossum is the original animal named "opossum". The word comes from Algonquian wapathemwa. Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently called simply possum."

    In other words, in the U.S. you can spell it either way. In Australia, it's always "possum," and since this happened there, it's definitely possum, not opossum.

  13. TT
    May 30th, 2008 at 1:19 am

    That's because you Yanks and Ozzies misspell words all the time.

    This is the same case of laziness for words such as COLOUR.

    But for some reason when comes to GLAMOUR, you decide to keep it.

    If you are going to say that you are speaking ENGLISH, then spell it correctly.

    Possum is incorrect, this is simply a case of people not knowing what the correct spelling is. Hearing it spoken people have no idea that there is an "o" in it.

  14. Thomas
    May 30th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    Wow, TT -- you're a dick and an idiot. How do Brits (I assume you're a Brit, because to my knowledge, no one else uses the word Yank to describe all Americans) get off telling people how to spell an animal that ISN'T NATIVE TO ENGLAND.

  15. your_mum_goes_to_college
    June 3rd, 2008 at 10:59 pm

    By the way TT, Australians spell everything the same as the Brits do e.g., colour, aluminium, anything that ends in "ise" is spelled with an S, not a Z etc...
    Also, it's "Aussies", not "Ozzies". Maybe check YOUR OWN spelling before you make comments regarding other people's spelling abilities.
    And where are you getting off telling Americans and Australians how to spell the name of an animal that's native to their own country but not yours?
    I suppose we shouldn't be giving assholes like you attention because that's exactly what you want.

  16. your_mum_goes_to_college
    June 3rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm

    Also, even if it were spelled "opossum", why should we have to spell it that way if "possum" was considered acceptable slang?
    If there were a post about Tasmanian Tigers would you get all up on your high horse in the comments section and carry on about "ACTUALLY, it's spelled THYLACINE!".
    Neatorama isn't exactally a formal publication, you jackass.


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