Furball
is a little ringtail possum, she was found in the middle of
the road, alone and curled up looking more like a pine cone
than a possum. She was only 104gram, so spotting something that
small is not all that easy. Jasper, our alert motorist, did
see her though being behind two other 
cars
that had already passed over her, but missing, he realise it
was a live animal, and not a pine cone.
Being
a very hot day, she was dehydrated, so she needed fluid, and
she would most likely have lost her mother the night before,
as possums are only active during the night hours.
Furball
settled fairly fast, and it did not take many days before she
even gave my husband a good bite to the finger, even though
he was at the time trying to give her her special formula, he
forgave her, and she drank her milk with no further interruptions.
She
soon moved out into a small aviary, where she could jump around
at night in a still confined space, I soon discovered that she
was not interested in any captive food, other than her formula,
she would only eat native food, being tips of Eucalypts branches,
and native flowers.
Within
a few more weeks she was big enough to move to the large aviary,
she now felt secure in her environment, realizing that we were
not going to eat her, and we were no longer as scary as she
had first thought. At least she was fed, warm, and life was
really not too bad after all.
With
a possum this size, we prefer not to make them tame, they can
stay fairly wild, and still accept being handled when needed.
Another
Little Ringtail possum came in 3 weeks after Furball, the same
size as her, also a female, she seemed healthy and fine at first,
but unfortunately internal injuries showed up 3 days after she
came in to care, and I rushed her to the vet. We could do nothing,
but end her pain, and she was put to sleep.
She
was found in the same circumstance as Furball, alone in the
middle of the road, but in her instance, it seems the car had
actually run over her. This was not apparent when she first
came in unfortunately.
It was sad as the two possums would have done well together,
but that was not to be.
Furball
thrived, was released to once again take up her wild existence in the
forest.
