Alaska is known for many things. The northern-most state in the union gave us the setting of “Northern Exposure,” the Palin family, amazing seafood, and fascinating stories about uh… moose? We guess? Little did we know however that it apparently has produced the world’s most courageous opossum wranglers. Or at least that’s what video from a Brooklyn, New York bar indicates.
Sources differ on what day this occurred, but sometime around the 25th or 26th of May, an opossum strolled into Temkin’s bar in Brooklyn. The otherwise normal night was briefly shaken up by the presence of the animal. Which, if you’re confused as to how this could happen, take note that these critters are voracious scavengers that will eat everything from fruits, to grain, to roadkill; basically anything they can find in your trash. So if they’re going to be anywhere in Brooklyn, naturally they’d be hanging around someplace that serves food.
After its unexpected arrival bar patron Sara Fulton took it upon herself to solve the problem. After reportedly declaring, “Hold my phone, I’m from Alaska,” she went up to the opossum, grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and hauled it outside.
Further video shows her waving her middle finger at a camera and exclaiming “F***ing Alaska, mother******.”
Does Alaska have anything specifically to do with opossums? No. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t even find any evidence that the Virginia opossum has even been able to migrate as far as the northern territories of Canada.
That being said, Fulton did get the opossum out of there and back in its merry way. Also, in case you were wondering if there’s a difference between opossum and possum, there is. Technically, a possum is a different kind of animal that resides in and around the Oceania region of Australia and New Guinea.
The opossum generally refers to the Virginia opossum, which is also the only marsupial found in the wild in the United States. The terms get used interchangeably in the states, but technically if someone tells you they saw a possum, they actually mean an opossum.
Thank you for coming to our opossum TED talk.
