We saw a Possum!

by Explorer
(Brampton, Ontario, Canada)


One of our readers in Brampton, Ontario, recently spotted a Possum - here is their story!



A couple friends and I were outside at around 2:30am, when we stumbled upon what looked like a Raccoon or a cat at first.

Curious, we took a closer look and were unable to decide what the creature was, given the low light conditions.

We returned home and hit the web to find out what animal it could possibly be.

The animal we saw:
-was approximately the size of a large cat
-resembled a giant rat
-was extremely docile
-had a white coat with black markings
-had a 6" fat tail

We came to the conclusion that we had seen a Possum!

Yes, I'd say what you saw was a Possum - you can read more about these animals on our Possum Page. Thank you for your contribution to our website, Explorer!

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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum Sighted in Mississauga
by: Raj and Family

We just saw a Possum on our backyard porch. We were all surprised to see this large rat type of an animal, with a large tail and black / white hair, looked very cute. Googled and then realised that it was a beautiful Possum. How blessed are we, to see this wonderful animal, at the fag end of an year that has been mostly negative. !! Date: December 30th/ 2020, Time 7:30 pm, location: Mississaugau, Edenwood Drive area.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum Siting
by: Anonymous

I saw a Possum in my back yard today April 24, 2019. Clarence and Centre St area, 8:30 am.
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starstarstarstarstar 		They Live in Whitby!
by: Carolyn

We have spotted a possum at our home at least three times this winter. The latest sighting was on Jan. 27th. at about 10:00 pm. He/she? was sitting on our fence outside our kitchen door. Of course, our little dog went "nuts". Fortunately, the fence is 6’ high. The possum didn’t seem to mind us watching him/her. We just wonder where it is living and hoping there won’t be any babies.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum on the Porch
by: Cheryl

Definitely saw a possum last night and caught him on video. Had no idea they were in Newmarket Ontario. Enjoyed a bit of dinner in our recycling bin and then headed off.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum
by: Anonymous

9 pm on a Saturday night we glanced out the back door to see a visitor. First thinking it was a stray cat, we went closer to the glass. This light coloured beast was not afraid of us nor did it act aggressively. We actually had to look the animal up to be sure of what it was.
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starstarstarstarstar 		I saw a Possum
by: Jennifer

I was relaxing watching TV at 11:30 pm near my living room window and out of the corner of my eye something was moving and when I turned, a Possum was standing there. I live in Courtice, Ontario. It was pretty cool to see.
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starstarstarstar 		Possum in Waterloo, Ontario
by: Jennifer

Saw an animal walking my fence. Thought it was my cat and quickly realized that it wasn't. This possum was Huge and it seemed to be foaming from the mouth. A possum with rabies? Keeping my pets indoors tonight. Wow!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Belleville Ontario
by: Anonymous

Saw one, road kill unfortunately. Belleville, Ontario.
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starstarstarstarstar 		We saw two Possum
by: Anonymous

Last night two possums were cruising down our street in Milton,Ontario,
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starstarstarstarstar 		Opposum sightung!
by: Anonymous

I saw an opposum this morning at Heart Lake Conservation area in Brampton, around 7:30am. He was walking along the trail while I was running. Very cute!
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starstarstar 		Possum in Harris Park, London, Ontario
by: Anonymous

Driving up to Ridout Street this evening, we saw a Possum crossing the road into the bush at Harris Park. We definitely weren't expecting to see one and were previously unaware that they were in southern Ontario.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Opossum in Kanata
by: Adam

I think my huskies got into it with a Possum in the back yard. We originally thought they had gotten into a fight with each other. They were both covered in blood and the male had a nasty cut on his front leg that needed stitches. Two days later I found the carcass. It is very big although there isn't enough left of the head to be sure. Long almost rat like tail but the size of a ground hog. It's brown though, not grey.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Port Hope, Ontario
by: Anonymous

A possum has been in my backyard for a few night now. First few times I saw it I couldn't make it out in the moon light. Long skinny nose, wide body funny looking long tail. I put up motion detector flood lights and got a real good look at it tonight under the bird feeders. Lit up as if it was daylight.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Ottawa, May 22, 2015
by: Anonymous

We saw a possum! Size of a house cat, thin bare 8" tail, approximately 12 pounds. Thought it was a huge rat at first... what a relief. There was a large area near a river in our neighbourhood that is very sadly being gentrified, I believe this is why we saw the possum; loss of its natural habitat.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Brampton
by: Anonymous

I saw a large possum in my back yard in Peel Village, Brampton, at 8:00 p.m. on March 24 2015. It was still light out. It showed no fear until I was about 10 feet away and threw a rock near it.
Ugly animal with great potential of getting into your attic.
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starstarstarstarstar 		We saw a possum on our deck
by: Anonymous

Had a possum come right up to our sliding door on our deck. Thought it was a Raccoon until I noticed it had no hair on its tail. Didn't know they existed in Canada, let alone Thornhill, Ontario!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Sighting in Waterloo Ontario
by: Anonymous

Saw a Possum on my deck, just outside my sliding glass door.... taking a look at my recycling and strolled around the deck and then into the backyard..... hoping it isn't around in the summer when I want to sit outside and enjoy the weather.
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starstarstarstarstar 		We saw a Possum in Milton
by: Anonymous

Last night my husband noticed something at our sliding door - to our amazement it was a Possum. We threw out some peanuts in the shell and it cracked it open and ate the nuts. He really seemed to be in no hurry to do anything and was moving slowly - not even bothered by the light that was turned on or the sliding door being opened and closed several times. What a strange creature. It was the size of a small dog with long hair and a thick hairless tail - everything cute except for the tail!!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum
by: Anonymous

February 22, 2013 3:30pm I just pulled into my garage when a noted a Possum near my blue recycle containers. I thought they were nocturnal, so why out in the day time?
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starstarstarstarstar 		And who are you
by: Anonymous

December 7th 2012, 8:30 pm, just leaving our garage backing out of the driveway, when wow whats that caught in our headlights?
My husband exclaimed "That's a Possum, what's he doing here?"
Digging up our lawn is what hes doing, hmmmmm, but he's cute to look at, well fed, he wasn't small.
We live in the country in Sutton, Ontario.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Thornhill
by: Phil

I had backed my car out of our garage and proceeded to close the garage door. As the door was coming down I saw the Possum's face looking at me. It sure was ugly! I stopped the door and after a few moments it quickly waddled out towards the neighbors house.
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starstarstarstarstar 		A Messy Eater
by: Anonymous

I was going to let my Pomeranian out late at night to pee, and always check to see if there are any animals nearby first. There was. A huge rat-like creature. A Possum that knocked over my garbage can. Again.

I've seen Raccoons, rabbits, skunks, cats, squirrels, you name it. You'd think I lived in the middle of the woods, but I don't. I live in the middle of a city with 500,000 people in it, Brampton. And we aren't allowed to do anything about these animals except to construct a plastic bubble around our house to keep them away ('barrier' methods as told by animal control).

We are not allowed to harm them in any way, but it's okay for them to bite, scratch, and maim us, our children and our pets.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Whitby Sighting
by: Rob

We always blame Raccoons and Squirrels for our outside garbage mess. Today I saw my first Possum. I knew what it was and could not believe my eyes.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Sighting
by: Tracey

We just saw a Possum in our driveway in Orangeville.....it was trying to get into our garage!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Ottawa!
by: Anonymous

I swear I saw a Possum in my backyard today! At first I thought it was a Squirrel, except it was huge, grey and had a long skinny tail. It's very cold and snowy here, so I was quite surprised.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Possums in Toronto?!!!
by: Anonymous

While me and my sister where eating breakfast we saw two possums in our backyard!

They had a white faces and a black bodies, and had a pink tail and nose. One was on the fence and the other one was on the ground. They even climbed on our fence.

My mom thought they were raccoons, but I saw "Over the Hedge", so I knew they were Possums.

One was bigger then the other one. They even climbed along the fence.

We live in Toronto.
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starstarstarstarstar 		Brampton possum Feb 2012
by: Anonymous

Came to this page after seeing the ugliest creature sitting on my back deck!

Looking over the pics here, it was a Possum for certain. Black rat like tale, fur black reminding me of a porcupine and a white face.

It hung around the deck for 10 minutes, no fear of me watching it from the patio door, then meandered to the back of the property and disappeared behind the shed!

I hope it's living in the ravine behind the house and not in my shed!

It's mid February here, and its hard to believe the critter is making it thru the winter.

Location is south west Brampton, just a few blocks west of Shoppers World.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Opossum in Ajax
by: SunnysideUp

I was walking Lindsay (dog) on Chambers around 5 am and all of a sudden I looked on the fence and it was staring at me.

Lindsay would have gone nuts if she saw it. I was afraid it might attack us. I just turned around and kept walking.

It is garbage day for us so I guess it was having breakfast.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Courtice
by: Lorri

I saw a Possum this morning at 7:30am in Courtice, Ontario, having breakfast under the bird feeder!!

I had to look at the computer images to make sure that's what it was.

WOW, until today I had now idea we had Possums in Ontario, let alone in urban areas.

We sure do have Possums! We often see them in urban areas around St Thomas, London, and surrounding areas!
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starstarstarstarstar 		A NEW LOCAL RESIDENT
by: Anonymous

Interested in the sighting of a Possum in Heart Lake, as we also live there and have had two encounters with a Possum.

The first was an unexpected dash across my feet as I sat at a picnic table - he moved fast enough that I was not sure what it was.

Early this month (December) I encountered the intruder again - this time perched on a small branch next to my bird feeder. We got a good view of him or her this time, and were able to identify it as a Possum.

It is apparently living under my neighbors back deck near their swimming pool and shares this space with "long time" Raccoon family residents, and a skunk or two.

Talk about communal living!
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Possum in Brampton
by: Heartlake - Brampton

At this very minute we have one sitting on our backyard fence. I let our dog out to pee tonight and he got all excited and started to bark at it, and now it has been sitting absolutely still for a while. Got a couple of pics.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150330355951091&l=ddd1b087d3
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starstarstarstarstar 		First Possum Encounter!
by: Anonymous

I saw a Possum going through the garbage can at Kingston Rd and Warden.

I wasn't sure what animal it was but when I Googled Possum, I knew that was what I saw!!!

I never knew Canada had Possums!

Super cute though!!
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starstarstarstarstar 		Chubby Possum
by: Jane

I saw one, and took photos last night. It was sipping rainwater from the edge of the swimming pool.

Now I know what has been pooping on my back lawn--very foul droppings!

Kingston Road & McCowan (Cliffcrest area of Scarborough).
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starstarstarstarstar 		One big cute one!
by: Antoni in brampton

I thought it was a Raccoon who would play at the sliding door with the cats, but turns out its a plump Possum that is living underneath the Doll house.

It tends to clean up after the birds are done eating seeds and bread after dark.
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starstarstarstarstar 		An unusual nightly visitor
by: Gudrun

Brampton, at Bramalea and Northpark

We had a visitor two days ago. It ate the bird seeds off the ground and then climbed up to the bird feeder using the chairs on my porch. It even broke part of the bird feeder that was within reach. It also left a large amount of unusual droppings behind.

Although I love wildlife, I wasn?t too impressed. I had to rinse my chairs and the porch as well and put the bird feeder away.

Yesterday I found out that our visitor was a Possum.

My children were not too happy to see the animal on our front lawn when they took the dog out.

Luckily, our dog is oblivious to any other animals.
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starstarstarstarstar 		I saw it too
by: Anonymous

I live in Brampton Ontario as well - what I saw looked like a really large rat with a long tail like a rat, it was white, I thought it was a large white cat coming up my pathway, but the fur was very fine and the face was that of a rat, it was definitely not a cat but the size as one.

I'm near the Kennedy / Linkdale area. This thing seemed fearless and just walked away when it saw me. It was very strange to see this in our area. I'm thinking was a large Possum but didn't know they live in Canada.

Anyways, I thought I was crazy but glad to see someone else has also spotted the same animal in Brampton.

Thanks for posting what you saw.
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		The Possum looks cute
by: Doreen

The Possum on this page looks adorable, but the ones I see near here are pretty ugly sometimes, maybe the baby ones are cute.

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