Last Friday I received a call from my wife around 11:00 am. She had been out with her class on a project next to the river by her school. They discovered a baby opossum alongside the road. It had a puncture wound on its neck. It was across the road from a house with a lot of chickens and dogs. She moved the baby to a safer spot and secured it as best she could.

She returned to the school and called to see if I would be able to go check on it. I had an open window of time and said I would. When I got to the area where she had left it, she came out to help me find it. We located the one she had found but it had not survived the wound. About three feet away we found another opossum or joey as the babies are called. 

The joey was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand and had a strong grasp. After picking it up we place it in a small basket with towels for bedding. She went back to work and I headed to the vet.

The vet we have found and like here is the Cherokee Animal Care Clinic (https://cherokeeanimalcare.com) in Whittier. Dr. Robbie has seen all of our pets and we like the way she, and her staff, is with them. When I entered the reception area I explained that my wife had found the joey and we wanted to make sure it was ok. I told her that if we had directions we would be willing to take care of it until it was old enough to release. She told me the baby looked ok but was very cold. In bringing the joey to the vet I had the air on in the car and I’m sure that contributed to the coldness. She said they would get it on a heating pad and see how it did. She told me that the survival rate for abandoned or injured animals was not very high. We had an appointment for one of our dogs later in the day so I left the opossum in their care.

We returned later with our dog for a checkup and to see how the joey was doing. Dr. Robbie told us that it had responded well and she believed it was a girl as a pouch seemed to be forming on her belly. In speaking with her we learned that it is illegal to have a wild animal like an opossum and that they are usually taken care of by a licensed rehabilitator. She suggested that we could take her to the Wildlife Center in Asheville the next day and they would take care of her. She told us how to feed and clean her as well as how to ensure she was warm and secure. She also checked our dog and she checked out okay.

We brought the joey home to decide what to do. By-the-way, the joey is really a jill as baby girl opossums are called. By the time we got home, she was named Tina.

We took a large cardboard box and made holes for air. We placed a bath towel and a couple of smaller towels in the box. Our thought was that she might like to burrow. We took the basket we had been carrying her in and placed it in the box as well. Then we place half of the box on a heating pad. We had been told that half on and half off would allow her to adjust to the warmth as she needed.

Next, we looked to get food for her. The vet had given us some powdered substitute milk that is used for puppies along with a couple of feeder syringes. She said we could try her on applesauce and puppy or kitten food. I went to the store for these items. 

While I was gone Saskia made a couple of feeder dishes from two bottle tops. By the time I returned she had fed her some milk and had helped her use the potty. Funny considering my age but I did not know that mother dogs, cats, and possums have to help the little ones to potty. They lick them to stimulate the process. We used a cotton ball dipped in warm water. With her needs taken care of, we placed her back in the basket on the heated side of the box and left her to sleep.

Every so often we would go to check on her and one time saw she was not in the basket. We started gently moving the blankets and sure enough, she had moved to the cooler end of the box and burrowed into the towels. We continued this routine untill we went to bed. At that time we set the alarm for every two hours so we could get up to feed and clean her.

All along we were discussing what to do. It was obvious that we were getting attached to her. We were giving serious consideration to going “outlaw” and keeping her until she could be released. The more we took care of her the stronger that possibility became. She was so cute and so strong and we related to the survivor instinct on which she had such a strong hold.

In the morning Saskia called the wildlife center and they told her they did not rehab animals but had a list of people who did. One of them lived in our county. Saskia called her and they spoke for a while. She explained the situation and the woman, Linda, was understanding and said she could help. Saskia told her that she and I would talk it over and get back to her. 

The urge to keep her was very strong but in the end, we decided it was in Tina’s best interest to give her to someone who was trained to do this. In her short conversation, we learned that the frequency for feeding her was not base on time as we had thought but on weight. We also learned that even though she loved the applesauce, too much would make her stool runny. We decided we just did not know enough to take proper care of her and we wanted her to have the best chance possible.

Saskia called Linda and we arranged a meeting. She met us with her husband and granddaughter. We talked for a long time and felt comfortable that we were making the right decision.

Linda told us how she came to be a rehabilitator and share many of her animal stories with us. We also talked about the law and see it is skewed against the person offering their service. She explained how she had to take a training course with the department of wildlife and that she has to buy a license each year. She also told us there is no form of compensation for doing the work and there is a real need for more people. We may look into this.

As we left she told Saskia she could call as often as she wanted to see how Tina was doing.

Sunday was the first call.