NBC’s Thaddeus the Thunder Opossum Struggling to Compete With Walter the CBS Weather Dog

RICHMOND, Va. — Following the success of Walter the Weather Dog on local television station CBS 6 News, competing news outlet NBC12 recently introduced viewers to Thaddeus the Thunder Opossum, a one-year-old marsupial with a panache for detecting nearby thunderstorms.

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Walter the Weather Dog has become a hot marketing tool for the CBS 6 weather team, with over 4,300 likes on his Facebook page, and NBC12 spokesman Burt Harris says it’s important to give the viewers what they want.

“We fully expect this little guy to make quite an impression on our viewers,” Harris said. “When his dark soulless eyes stare out from the screen while he hisses with all his might when a thunderstorm approaches, folks are going to fall in love.”

“Thaddeus is nocturnal,” he continued, “so when we wake him up for the six o’clock news he may be a little cranky, but in that way he’s very relatable to folks. No one likes being woken up.”

Thaddeus’ leading graphic shows the animal backed by a collage of weather phenomena including rain and lightning. Harris says that the graphic is meant to look ominous and intimidating, with the hopes that viewers will heed Thaddeus’ warnings of severe weather.

“Seriously, the mighty thunder opossum is not one to trifle with,” Harris added.

Harris says they plan on taking Thaddeus out for public appearances as soon as he becomes a little more accustomed to his leash and stops biting or scratching when petted.

“He did, in fact, lightly attack a production assistant recently,” Harris noted. “She’s recovering nicely. Thank goodness God gave her two eyes.”

At press time, Thaddeus’ Facebook page had 19 likes.