I know I know...they eat all kinds of stuff, including eggs and chickens.
After I wrote that about rabies a few minutes ago, I looked up rabies
and possums...
Their body temperature is too low to support rabies, fortunately for us,
and our domestic critters.
Tried to make a pet out of 3 little ones whose mother got 'combined' (so
that tells you how long ago that was!!). No clue how old they were, but
about 3" body length. They lived on goat's milk and assorted scraps,
and were uniformly and unrelentingly primitive in their interactions,
both with each other, and in interactions with dogs, cat, etc, including
the person who brought food to them and talked to them in a soft, quiet
tones. For her efforts, she got several good puncture wounds, one of
which still can be seen. Eventually one got my brother, at which point
they were summarily fed to the hogs. I'd say they were nearly
full-grown at that time.
It seems to me they are on automatic pilot at all times; they really
don't seem to think at all, near as we could see. Never did we see any
action between them that wasn't jostling for food, or outright fighting
over it. No observable attempt was made to form a particular sleeping
area or to sleep in a group. Food was everything; other than that, all
other action we could see was reactive.
Bev's comment about their immune systems is right on, not much bothers
them, partly the low body temp, partly other reasons. The do seem to be
host to all sorts of parasites, though, both internal and external, and
they carry/support some diseases to which they are not subject
themselves, so they are the one and only critter we used to routinely
kill. We don't have them here, I'm happy to say. I'll take porkies any
day....