Very Strange animal in the backyard

I'm sure this is no where near the importance of a bigfoot sighting, or some mythical creature, but i was kinda concerned this morning when i let my dog back in from our yard. I thought i saw a cat moving between my neighbors'and my yard, until i realize it had a tail about a foot long, it was flesh tone (peach-ish) with no hair on it. When it turned to look at me ( due to the noise of the door slamming behind me) it had a strange shaped head, kind of like an owls'. ok, recap, it had a large full head with no real difference in size btwn the head and neck, itwas about 50% larger than a cat, its was a off white color with grey markings around the center of the body. It wasn't a raccon, it wasn't a cat or dog, it wasn't a very large rat (we get those here in NYC) i have no clue. All i know was it was big, moved swiftly, agile, and i know it's not native to Queens, NY. Anyone have any idea??? i Doubt that it's some sort of mysterious beast, but i know it doesn't belong here. . . . and if you don't know what it is, anyone else see it? I live in the Ridgewood/Glendale are of Queens, ny.


oh and ps, it wasn't a ferret either. . .

Sounds to me like a possum.Possums are bald and very weird looking if you havent seen one up close before

I thought so too, but i looked up pictures online, and they weren't really like what i had seen, it didn't have that long snout or nose. Altho the tail thing i read about them was quite accurate. i wanna say it looked like some australian desert animal, but, how could it be here? could i have some weird opossum hybrid living in my neighborhood?


[edit on 1/5/06 by decidedlyundecided]

possums are gnarly looking. they are mean as hell and will attack anything that come near them.

decidedlyundecided- sounds interesting to say the least,

maybe its worth asking around you area if anyone else has spotted a strange animal..

Also carry a camera with you just in case it re appears,

can you find anything that looks like it?

People are taking all kinds of exotic animals home these days...
often cities are the last to make rules against it...

just an FYI to show what i mean. In San Antonio alone, there are over 5000 privatly owned tigers/lions ... there are about 10 in captivity

often an animal is so rare, that no one has bothered to try to make a law against it...
I would ask around, and see if anyone knows an exotic animal owner.

[edit on 5-1-2006 by LazarusTheLong]

that's the part that made me nuts,
i had just bought myself a brand new $350 digital cam. just for such reasons, but as i was tearing thru my bag, do u think i found it?!?! no of course not. . . just my luck.

but yea, i'm gonna have to ask around, because i don't want my dog to get rabies, or eaten or something. I've been looking at more photos of opossums, and the larger ones did look similar, but, like i said, the head was different. Do opossums jump around like cats, or agile like them, because the moment i took my eyes off of it, it was gone, and yard it was in was surrounded on both sides by fence that was atleast 6' high. . . .

fisher cat...bobcat.....????

www.possumrescue.com...

www.possumrescue.com...

This pic is cool hehehehe.

external image


[edit on 5-1-2006 by asala]

1. Opossums attack nothing, they are as dumb as they look.....I am contact with them on a daily basis
2.It sounds like that is what you saw, but with some sort of hair loss, which could be a result of fleas or allergies...
I have pulled 4 of them out of traps this week, young to old!!

Yea, i'm starting to think that's what i saw,
but the one thing that still bother's me is the face that it had no snout.
All of the pics i saw were with a nice long round snout, and it didn't have one.
When my back door slammed it looked me dead in the eye so i got a good look.
have you ever come across something like that before, irishmen3g?

Honestly, no....and I can't think of why an opus wouldn't have a snout....sorry to get graphic, did it look deformed, bloody or anything? And also, do you feed pets outside?

[edit on 5-1-2006 by irishmen3g]

Just a quick idea, in England we have had a lot of 'big cat' sightings. These cats are larger then the average feline.
Here are some links for you. I know that they dont look like what you are describing, but it could be along the same lines.

Here

BBC

To be honest i might make a thread about these big Cat sighting in England.

I have seen the big cat in England subject, Would make a great thread!! BTW....If we need an official Animal Control Officer on ATS.......Ill take the job Can provide credentials!

I cant, i just done a search and there seems to be a thread alredy going on the subject.

Link

no, irishmen3g, actually quite to contrary, it looked almost pristine, it was this awesome off white color, very clean. No mange, no blood, or ickyness.
That also struck me as odd, i get a lot of cats that have homes and just wander during the day in the yard,
and you can tell that they have homes and get fed. Then u can also tell the strays, they're dirty, and malnutrition.
This thing looked well kept. The only thing that seemed a bit off was the tail, exactly like in the opossum photos.
jeez, this gets more and more confusing. I wish i could just say it was an opossum and be done with it, but it wasn't. It's face, it was weird. . .

oh and no, all the pets get fed inside just for this reason, we don't want strange animals hanging around. . . . i have a little black poodle, 13 yrs old bless his furry little heart, and there's no way he could win in a fight with a field mouse let alone a stray cat or a racoon, so we try not to attract danger for him. . .

[edit on 1/5/06 by decidedlyundecided]

It could be an exotic animal that you dont currently know about, say from africa or something, i know there are alot of weird ones like the eye eye or a lemure (im not suggesting it might be those) that someone might of taken back home with them, though it seems to me not a huge chance that would be it. My other guess has also been guessed maybe it was born deformed in such a way that it looks like something weird but is not harmfull to its health. I've seen cats born with horrible hairlips and survive (though thats rare if the hairlip is bad enough). Could it also possibly be a crossbreed between some sort of exotic pet that got loose and a cat/dog/wild animal like raccoon or possum? Also unlikely due to species not being able to mate with other species but what other theories do we have?? Undiscovered species rarely turn up in big cities!!

I may be way off with thios but thought this may be helpful ? Did it look like these felines?

www.juliesjungle.com... ages&fid=1

no, but jeez those guys are adorable, i wouldn't mind having one of those in my backyard!!

i guess unless someone can figure something else out i'm going to have to resign myself to the fact that it was a deformed opossum?
hehe, perhaps a ferret and opossum,

a opossett?

Ferrossum?

hehe, i dunno. . .


btw i'm very appreciative of the out pouring of interest in my little backyard safari. . .

Just reading your post and wondering if you may have seen a Scottish Fold? I believe you mentioned the face looked like an owl and that is a common description of some of these cats. Here are a couple of links with some pitures.

www.breedlist.com...

www.scottishfold.com...

www.scottishfold.com...