2006 Rescue & Release

Eight baby opossums had their various parents killed by a cat and a dog but were cared for by a local persimmon farmer until they were large enough to be released. The opossum is North America's only marsupial (female has a pouch) mammal which have a short life span, 2-4 years. The female opossum carries and nurses her young in her marsupium, 14 days after conception, and after 3 months are carried on her back. Rarely blinking their eyes, when frightened and unable to flee, possies may fall into an involuntary shock-like state, "playing 'possum", which is fatal when blinded by car headlights in the road. The opossum species is one of Earth's oldest mammals. All possies have 50 teeth and eat insects, rodents, fruit, grasses, carrion, snakes and clean themselves after eating. These opossums used their prehensile tails to help stabilize their positions when jocking for their favorite food: a dried persimmon. The opossum has opposable hallux, which is like a thumb, located on its rear feet, which helps it grasp branches when it climbs, possies cannot hang by their tails.

2005 Rescue and Release

A severe summer thunderstorm caused a neighborhood to flood in Southaven, MS. Many animals were displaced from their nests, including these 2 1/2 month old opossums who were separated from their mother and could not be returned. Volunteer Rehabilitator Becky Lucas cared for them until they could be released. Initially, the opossums had to eat and drink from feeding tube, but Becky slowly trained them to lick a special nutritional formula out of a dish. Trained care and patience is needed to get all of our rescued wildlife babies ready to live in the wild. Some opossums killed on the road may still have live babies in their pouch that can be rescued.