I came home the other night and these guys were sitting on my fence. I love animals (especially Opossums), and grabbed my camera from the backseat. I slowly opened the door and began creeping towards them.
Then I noticed something weird. They weren't running away, but just staring at me forlornly. I started talking to them and they perked up and tried to move towards me, but only fell off the fence instead.
I wanted to put them in a big warm box and care for them overnight, but my husband wasn't about to let two opossums in the house, the insensitive jerk. These little guys had lived underneath our house for years and now they needed us, or at least that was how I saw it.
I called the local veterinarians, and despite the fact that every website said they cared for wild animals, each doctor told me to call animal control.
Well, I hate the police. A lot. And anyone associated with the police.
And I wasn't about to let animal control come to my house, take my (yes, my) opossums and potentially euthanize them. All on the American tax-payer's dollar. They were in my hands only, it seemed.
So I spent the next few hours with two sick opossums, trying to make them feel a little better and giving them food and water. After a while they crawled off on their own.
Two days later, no noxious smells are coming from anywhere near my house, so I assume they made it home and are recovering. Hopefully in a few days they will be lounging on my back porch with my cats, like usual.
Oh, and for anyone who is afraid of opossums, check out the website of the
National Opossum Society, which states they are relatively harmless and friendly animals. And they are also America's only marsupial.
