Oh Dear! Opossum!
Woman in the Middle | April 6, 2014We had quite the day today. About 10:30 in the morning I decided to make a grocery store run. As I headed for the main drag I spotted a dead possum, obviously hit by a car. That is a pretty common site around here except this time I saw some little thing running around the dead possum. A rat? Maybe…then I realized…OMG! A baby possum!!!
I kept on driving but I couldn’t get that sad sight out of my head. I called Hubby and told him we had to go back for the baby before it was run over, too. By the time I circled around the block a lady was at the scene with a shovel (!). So I stopped and we chatted. She was on her way home from the grocery store when she spotted the same thing I did. She was using the shovel to keep the little guy out of the road. I told her to wait there, protect the possum, and I would be right back. I drove home, grabbed Hubby, a box, and a towel, and we went back .
When we got back to the scene of the crime, the lady (whose name I never got) said there were two babies. She and I volunteered Hubby to pick up the live possum babies (one had perished with the mother.) I did help as it was a multihanded job. Yes, people, I touched a dead possum!
We brought the crying babies home. You should have seen the look on Eldest Daughter’s face when I bust into her bedroom and said, “I have two baby possums. Come help take care of them!” Of course, once she saw their amazingly cute little faces she couldn’t resist and instantly became the best possum foster mom. She rolled up the bottom of the t-shirt she was wearing and we popped the little guy and girl in there where they stayed nice and warm and slept most of the time.
I ran to the store and bought baby animal formula which we fed them throughout the day. Happily we found a licensed wildlife rescue facility that could take them, care for them properly, and release them back into the wild when they are old enough. We took them there this evening. Of course, it was a bit bittersweet, because they were so cute, but they need to live the way God intended, not in some cage in my back yard. Certainly not the Sunday I expected when I rolled out of bed this morning, but how often do you get to play with baby possums?
good job Kim and family. Not just another day in Jurupa Valley
What a special story. That just made our whole day. Mahalo for sharing. Anyone who can give baby opossums 100% love and caring, gets a 100% love from us too….Love you Johnson’s……….Uncle’s Bill & Maka…….
Awww! You are such a good person! Baby animals are too sweet to let die.
You were lucky to find someone on a Sunday. I found an injured hawk on my property on a Monday holiday & couldn’t get hold of anyone. When I did, I was told the oounty didn’t handle that, I’d have to contact Fisn & Game. The poor thing was dead before I found anyone to come get him.
Oh what a wonderful sweet post and what wonderful sweet people you are!
Oh such a sad thing good on you for going back and getting the babies
That was so sweet of you. Not so sure I would have done the same thing. I’m not crazy at all about possums.
Poor little cuddly babies! I’m glad you got them to safety!
They were adorable!!! So ugly they were cute!