Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1887 — Dogs, Coons, and ’Possums. [ARTICLE]

Dogs, Coons, and ’Possums.

The relative degrees of courage between animals is strangely illustrated between the coon; the 'possum, and the dog. The 'possum will kill the coon, while the coon will beat the dog. Boar ’poesums will fight oyh other when they meet, biting at each other’s under jaws. When they once get firmly clinched they will hang to it till one expires. The victor wi 1 then engage the first coon he meets. This is strange, in view of the fact that the ’possum is a cowardly animal, feigning death xyhen sighted by hunters, and giving rise to the expression of “playing” ’possum. The coon fights < at fashion—scratching and biting. The ’possum quietly proceeds to coil his tail around the coon’s neck, choking him into submission. The vanquished coon will arise from his inglorious defeat, and meeting the dog, of which the ’possum Stands in mortal dread, will engage him in combat, severely wounding, if not entirely killing, him. The hound dog is the only one which can match the coon, and yet the bulldog, which has been whipped by the coon, will make the hound dog run for dear life.