Just ran over a......
 

Alright guys,I put new bars on my bike tonight and decided to take it for a spin. On the way home I saw a cat sitting in the middle of the road,so i slowed down because i didnt want it running in front of me.I got up closer and realized it was a possum.The little ******* decided to make a move as soon as i was on him and ran striaght under my front wheel,and then my rear wheel. i did a turn around because i wanted to help it,but its an injured wild animal and i didnt want to get mangled by it,so i rode away(sad for it).

If this sort of thing happens again,what is the best thing to do?

Just be glad it didn't get caught in your spokes ... someone will post the squirrel picture/link. It was probably rabid anyway. Keep riding and pretend you killed it. Are you sure it wasn't a cat?

Positive it was a possum,I turned aroun to check it out and all it did was hiss at me and limp away.

No experience with possum, but everything I've encountered on the road so far will run away if you aim for it but gets confused if you try to avoid it. So next time, aim for it.

next time....pix or shens ahahaha

be glad it wasn't a cat!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/22/29...f2de3d5bf4.jpg

Be thankful you went OVER it.

Wow,at least the possum was alive when i rode off.Thats squirrel didnt even have a chance.

Oh, that squirrel was still alive, but not for long!

Silly squirrel!

That's not how you ride a bike.

Why do you think it was rabid? A rabid opossum, or any animal with rabies for that matter, wouldn't have been just hanging out in the road. Next time if it is still alive, it should be okay, or become a meal later for some scavenger. Nature playing the course.

If it dies, try to move it off to the side of the road with out touching it. Not because of the risk of rabies (very low, actually rabies is at an all time low this year,) but for the risk of the many blood borne parasites opossums carry. You could get some nasty **** if you come in contact with any of the fluids. I saw move it so there is less risk of the scavengers that will feed on it to be run over.

Anyway, glad your okay. I hit a rabbit once mountain biking and took a bad header into a tree breaking my jaw.

I ring my bell when I come upon small animals. So far it's worked great on squirrels- they turn tail and run away at the sound of the thing. (It's an Incredibell Brass Duet.)

I was coming up behind a pidgin once, and there was a car behind me.
I hit the tail of the bird, and then when the car passed us the bird flew off.

pidgin??? lol pigeon maybe??

Ack, I almost ran over a stupid possum the other day in Sarasota. It was sitting there on the sidewalk so I slowed down and instead of staying put it ran out in the road right in front of me. I missed it, narrowly.

I almost hit a skunk a few nights ago, thankfully it ran away without spraying me.

Instead of getting the thing out of that mess and putting it out of its misery someone thought it would be a better idea to take a pic of it? Thats pretty much a person thats ****ed in the head! :notamused:

Possums = proof of vengeful God.

it could have already been dead.

Its holding onto the spoke dude :(

Yeah,this happend to me right off Manatee ave. just west of The Lost Kangaroo.Pretty similar situation too.Maybe he just has a vendetta against cyclists?

We ran over a possum with a car before, and it ran away. I'm pretty yours was fine.

I don't mean to be nitpicky, but: As rabies progresses, an animal's behavior tends to become more erratic and less sensical. They will often do things that seem un-natural and counterintuitive, such as sitting in the middle of the street.

That looks like a well fed a/upossm.

omg poor squirrel :(

i think the only other thing you really can do with an injured wild animal is call animal control... my best friend called when she ran over a squirrel once. she ended up waiting for an hour until they came and unceremoniously scooped it into a cage. probably just put it out of its misery anyways. RIP.

I felt bad,but I didnt feel bad enough to catch,or keep the possum hostage. I think in retrospect,riding off was the best thing to do.I didnt have to confront the opossum and he didnt have to confront me.

a friend of mine was staying at my place a way back and he had gone to visit his dad near buffalo. its was snowing badly. when he came back to toronto he comes in the house and hes got blood on his jeans and jacket. im like 'dude wtf' he said he was driving and a deer ran out on the highway and he hit its head with the passenger side of the astrovan. some people would have just kept going but my friend stopped to check. he said when he got out of the van he could hear the deer crying. he went over and it was obvious the neck was broken. its head was folded over onto its side and it was not moving. he said its big black eye was looking at him like 'help me'. he said he told it what he was going to do and pet its head. it stopped crying and just watched him then. he beat it to death with the shovel that was in the back of the van. sounds horrible but probably the most humane thing he could have done. he says he feels like he helped the deer and feels better about it although i think it has mentally affected him even ten years later.

i ran over a squirrel with my road bike once and it just...ran away after =\

Why do people think that beating the crap out of a half dead deer is humane? Trying to save its life would be more "humane", no?