Sunday morning I was out in the back yard hanging up a towel to dry and stopped to pull a few weeds. When I got about half way back to the door I saw a possum make a mad dash for one of the holes under my big shed. Evidently it had come out to get a snack of cat food and I surprised it. As I came around the corner of the small shed, I heard something squawking like crazy, and there was a baby possum who had not taken off when his mom did and had gotten separated from her. Stray cat Romeo had an alarmed look on his face. Even though the little possum wasn't a whole lot bigger than a mouse, he knew it definitely wasn't one. The baby came right over to me yelling, 'help me, help me, help me find my mom!'. I wasn't sure whether it would let me pick it up, but decided to try. No problem! It fit right in the palm of my hand. I walked it over to the hole under the shed where I had seen mom go. I put it down next to the hole and took a few steps back; it started to follow me! So I picked it up again and practically put it in the hole. It went in this time and momma must have been right there, because although it had been squawking this entire time, there was suddenly quiet. I'm pretty sure mom and baby were reunited.
What I did was probably all wrong - most likely I should have just gone inside and let momma come out and get her baby. But with the stray cats in the yard I wasn't sure they would all react like Romeo and didn't want them to get it. Plus I was sure momma was just as stressed out as the baby hearing its cries and didn't know how long it would take her to get her nerve up to rescue it. It was simply the fastest way to reunite the pair and keep the baby safe. I'm glad everything turned out the way it did.
Baby possums are so much cuter than their parents. I figure the baby was a few months old - when they are born they are no bigger than a jellybean! And if the possum has moved in under the shed, that explained why I haven't seen the woodchuck lately. Must have gotten evicted!
Click here for some great videos of orphaned baby possums - thank goodness mine didn't end up that way! In #8 you will hear the sound of the baby calling for its mom, which is what I heard. And #11 tells you all about baby possums. They are all worth a view.
Oh Carolyn! What if it had bitten you in fear? If you're going to pick up wild things grab a pair of gloves first at least! That's what I do when I nurse birds back from shock. Next time just let it sort itself out, ok?
ReplyDeleteIf it had had any negative reaction to my bending down and sticking out my hand, obviously I wouldn't have done it. It was perfectly fine with my holding it. It knew I was going to help it find mom and I did. :-)
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