Oppossum Shuts Down New York Subway

Aww, how cute!

Seen It All on Subway? Look Under This Seat

Last Friday — yes, it happened to be the 13th — the straphangers on a late-night D train were startled to discover that a nonhuman creature was in their midst. An opossum, to be precise.

The intrepid marsupial, which had apparently boarded after the train departed from its Coney Island terminus, had curled up beneath a seat, comfortably close to a radiator, as the train rattled through the wilds of Brooklyn...

The D train was evacuated after arriving at the West Fourth Street station in Manhattan, where a group of police officers, armed with heavy-duty gloves and a canvas bag, were on hand to nab their perp. The officers were turned back, however, after the animal bared its teeth and snarled, the police said.

This, apparently, was a job for the experts. The officers arranged for animal control agents to meet the train in a subway yard next to the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, according to Paul J. Browne, the chief police spokesman. Normal D train service was then resumed, after a 27-minute delay.

Now, if that had been somewhere out in the sticks, somebody on the train would have known how to take care of a 'possum.  They might have even invited it home for dinner.  That reminds me of the old joke:

What's a redneck seven course dinner?

A six pack and a 'possum.