I remember in grade school, making that typical kid mistake of thinking the opossum began with the letter ‘p’. I didn’t give them much thought then, but now, opossums are one of my most favorite wild creatures. If you can get over their scaly tails and hairless hands (which I can – my favorite pet growing up was my rat friend, Freckles), they are pretty dang cute. While they suffer a bad rap from whoever makes up creature stereotypes as gross, dirty pests that you sometimes find stuck in your trashcan, they are actually amazing.

Here are four facts to win you over to the opossum fan group: Opossums decimate tick populations by groom constantly, eating ticks they find. They also eat baby venomous snakes, as they are immune to most snake venom. They almost never get rabies, thanks to their low body temperature,⁣ and have a really good memory, testing better than rats, cats, dogs, and pigs⁣. So the next time you have a little opossum cutie running around in your yard, send them a little mental gratitude for all the good they do. ⁣