Opossums

Yesterday marked a month and four days since the tornado ravished our family farm on Saturday, June 5th. (It was also my mom's birthday - Happy Birthday, Mom!) By the time we had contacted Nature's Nursery and done some more clean up out at the farm, we had found baby opossums.  The Monday after the storm the kids and I took the box filled with these babies out to Nature's Nursery in Whitehouse.

The opossums made it through the storm.  They had been ripped from their mothers pouch and mommy was nowhere to be found. In fact, one of these opossums had been thrown hundreds of feet and were found in the field. One was found under the rumble of the house, and three were in a puddle under a downed tree.  They were not as small as a mouse, but not as big as a rat yet either. 

I like opossums because way back when Nature's Nursery had come to a biology class at Owens and educated us on what they do. We then took a field trip to their facilities and we met some of their rescued opossums.  They are actually fascinating creatures that serve a big purpose in the wild.  They eat just about anything, but when left alone, they eat grubs, insects, snakes, frog, small mammals (including moles - so if you don't want moles in your yard, opossums will take care of them for you).  They aren't actually mean.  In fact, you can take an adult, clean it up and tame it. They can be litter trained and held.  They put on a good show if they feel threatened but they really have no defense, which is why they play dead. They don't carry rabies.  but they also can't see very well, so often they rely on taste to "see" their way around.  And the coolest part - they are North America's ONLY marsupial!

Ok so the way we found these babies is because they were letting off what we thought was a hissing sound.  We didn't know what it was and it sounded like something struggling to breath and it was loud. They were quite a distance from us and we heard them loud and clear.  So we thought maybe it was a dog, we started looking. Once we found them and realized they were opossums, Rob made me leave them alone.  We moved the tree enough so they weren't pinned and had a chance to get out.  Sometime later one of them did get out and was sitting about 20 feet away from where it was.  It could barely walk and move, remember they should have still been in pouch with momma.  But it climbed onto a log and started making that noise.  When it realized we were coming towards it, it didn't run, it came towards us.  It was looking for help and unable to really see, it didn't even know to be afraid of us.  We collected them, dried them off and put them in a box with a blanket.  By the end of the night on Sunday we had at least 4 maybe 5 of them.  We had found one dead one that was about 30 feet from the others that were under the tree and we had found one about 300 feet away out in the field - ALIVE!

Rob wouldn't let me take them home, so we left them in the box overnight out there. And if they lived overnight, he said I could take them to Nature's Nursery.  They did! I thought that as small as they were, if they made it through that tornado - they deserved the chance to life! So we took them to Nature's Nursery.

Nature's Nursery's director called me a couple of days later to thank me for taking the time in tragedy to worry about these babies.  I asked them to let me know when they release them because I wanted the kids to see the full circle.  Our rescuing them, our taking them to a place that could responsibly take care of them, and then their release back into the wild.  An excellent lesson in caring for God's creation. 

Sunday I received a call from Nature's Nursery our opossums were ready to release!!!!! And we got even greater news! Given the circumstances of the storm and the loss of so much small wildlife like opossums out in the area of the farm, they were going to let us pick up our opossums and release them back at the farm.  How exciting!

So yesterday, we drove out to Whitehouse and picked up our babies! They were put in a kennel, covered with a towel and put in my van.  They were a lot bigger now and ready to go home!

We learned something new about opossums. Mommies carry about 5 to 8 babies twice a year and very few of those babies make it in the wild because of predators (humans being the biggest).  That "hissing" noise that we heard back when we found them, was not a defense mechanism. They weren't trying to scare us away! They were calling for help! Baby opossums have a distress call! That's why it was so loud. It was meant to be heard, so their mom could find them.  And they have thumbs on their hind paws! You can see them on this picture! This little guy was ready to go for a ride! Holding on tight!

Well, the farm is gone.  Not just the farm, but everything including the trees where the mommy opossum lived with her babies.  So we decided to take them to our cousin's barn which property adjoins the farm. His barn wasn't hit by the storm because the tornado turned when it hit our farm house.  This property will provide a safe home with lots of food for our opossums! Giving them a chance to live!

We pulled in, got the kids out of the car and began to carry the kennel to the back by the trees.  A lady stopped in the road and started yelling at us. She kept saying "hey, you can't drop animals out here! You can't do that!" As nasty as she was, we were nice and let her know that it was our family property and that we were returning animals that were that been rescued when we lost our family farm house.  She continued to be nasty and said "well, you can't drop them here." We then told her they weren't cats or domestic animals they were wild, they belonged here.  They were opossums.  She proceeded to say in front  of my kids "Shoot 'em. They're as bad as racoons! They're useless! Just kill 'em!" And she sped off!

I was quite irrate at first. What is it any of her business? Not her property! But also how smart was she to say something like that in front of kids.  I think I might have screamed at her had she given me the chance. And then it hit me, she just proved how ignorant people can be and became a wonderful example to my kids of why we did what we did in the first place.  An excellent example of what not do with animals that we were given the responsibility to care for.  

We took the opossums to the back of the property and released them into the trees.  The big guy took off immediately, some of them went off together and two went separate ways but kind of lolly-gagged their way.  This guy smelled his way to freedom! He was very curious about everything around him!

Rowan was a little upset that he couldn't hug them goodbye! Although he probably could have! These opossums didn't cry in the car ride. They didn't even look scared. There was no playing dead! It's like they knew we weren't there to hurt them. But to help them get home!