The rest of the opossum story...

So I forgot to update that little saga. The next morning I got online to find a wildlife rehabilitator. Found a number and called on Monday morning, but was told to take them to LSU and the next rehabilitator on the list would be called.

Went to check on the little things (in the crate I had place them in) and found one missing...yep, missing...and they were being kept in the house...with three dogs that slept inside over the night...yep, a loose baby opossum in the house with a dog that likes to kill them...great.

So I look around the house to see if I notice any thing amiss. Nope...not really. No blood, no hair, no little opossum body...nothing. Great. Realized that the holes in the wire door to the crate they were in was probably incorrectly sized to their size and it must have crawled out the little adventurous thing.

I go to the couch, look under the cushions, nope. Under the piano...no. Under the bookshelves...nada. Under the wood stove...uh uh. Behind the computer...no opossum. Great. (I don't have a lot of furniture, lol.)

I head to the kitchen. The fridge would be impossible to move without Steve and he was unavailable, so I was really hoping that it didn't go back there. Our kitchen cabinets do not meet at the corners in the base of the cabinets. I don't know why, but it's rather annoying really as things can get back there-spiders, dropped grapes, kitty jingly balls, etc. And come to find out, little baby opossums. Atleast the thing was found. I had looked there once and didn't really notice anything, but it was hard to see as the space is long and dark. I got the small flashlight out and shown it down the length of the cabinets and there it was, huddled in the back trying to sleep. I was glad and also a little freaked out. I didn't know if there were holes running along the back of the wall there...and that's just what I needed, an opossum crawling behind the cabinets and dying! I want to redo my cabinets, but not because of that and not right now!

I thought about it for a bit and tried a wooden dowel with a rag tied to the end hoping he'd try to bite it or claw it and get his little self caught. That didn't work, he just hunkered down more and moved a bit while hissing at me. I was just praying he didn't have the ability to crawl somewhere else! I looked around the kitchen and noticed the fly swatter (gross I know, but I'd rather smash them than have them flying around). It was a wired one and I thought, hmmm, I'll bend the end of it like a sort of scoop, cut off the swatter part and tape the wire handle to the dowel. I was going to attempt to scoop and slide him forward. It so worked! Quite well actually. I got it down in there, over his body and slid him all the way out.

Opossum found, deathly smell averted, in a smaller crate he went with his sibling and off to LSU for rehab and hopefully release when they get old enough.