Possum Pals : Protectors Say the Creatures Couldn’t Possibly Pose a Problem for People
You could say Mary Naylor was playing possum the other day when she slipped unnoticed into a library 30 miles from her Highland Park home.
Without a word, she walked past the reading tables and disappeared through an unmarked basement door. Shutting it behind her, Naylor carefully opened the box she had discreetly carried in.
Out stepped Tripod. He wasn’t playing possum. He was a real one.
The 7-month-old marsupial had come with Naylor to the monthly meeting of the Opossum Society of California, an Irvine-based group whose goal is to help protect what they say is Southern California’s most misunderstood animal.
To many city dwellers, opossums are scary-looking, filthy creatures that knock over garbage cans, hang by their rat-like tails when they aren’t stripping fruit trees bare and drool stupidly, spreading rabies with every bite of their ferocious teeth.
But according to society members, opossums are docile, clean animals that are not powerful enough to tip over trash cans. They use their tails only for balance when walking or climbing. They only eat overripe fruit. Their low body temperature gives them resistance to diseases such as rabies.
Opossums rank higher in intelligence than dogs, society members say. And opossums drool only when they are cagily “playing possum,†as the saying goes. That’s when they pretend to be sick in order to fool predators.
Animal experts agree on all those points. “Opossums constantly clean themselves,†affirmed Tori Matthews, supervisor of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter in Hawthorne. She said she has even seen one using a damp washcloth to tidy up.
Opossums have had plenty of time to evolve. Fossils suggest that opossums lived 70 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs. These days, though, the creatures are losing a race with bulldozers and bureaucrats.
Development has squeezed opossums into residential neighborhoods, where they routinely fall prey to automobile traffic and to larger dogs and cats. But a new state regulation prohibits them from being adopted as pets.
Tripod was part of a litter of nine orphans brought to Naylor for care after their mother had apparently been killed by a car.
For weeks, Naylor fed the tiny animals with a syringe and warmed them with a heating pad to duplicate the warmth of their mother’s pouch.
Later, Tripod’s eight litter mates were released in the wild. But a leg injury that led to amputation gave Tripod his name--and prevented him from being set free.
Naylor said she is happy to have the curious little creature around her house. More than 100 others that she has rescued over the past four years have been nursed back to health and released.
“I’ve become so enamored with opossums. They’re such sweet little things,†said Naylor, who is a horticulturist at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. “A lot of us fall in love with just about every one of them. But our main goal is to successfully release them back into the wild.â€
Leslie Lozano, a police dispatcher who lives in Bellflower and is president of the Opossum Society of California, said her 300-member group has organized a rescue network in Los Angeles and Orange counties to help care for injured animals. Opossums are sent by animal shelters as well as by individuals.
“Every possum I see, I want to keep. That’s my problem,†Lozano said as she welcomed 35 members and a handful of opossums to the society meeting at a Garden Grove library.
Because of the state’s new possum regulations, society members are careful to avoid drawing attention to their animals. If asked, they explain that the creatures are being kept for purposes of “long-term care.â€
As the session got under way, there were comments about medical treatment for opossums that are attacked by dogs. There were also quick reports on ways to rescue possums hit by cars and on precautions to take to keep caged opossums safe after major earthquakes.
(If a mother opossum is found dead on the street, check her pouch and be prepared to wrap babies found there in old shirts to keep them warm, Lozano counseled. And consider stockpiling opossum food, such as dry dog or cat food, for emergency use in the event of a major temblor, she recommended.)
Then came the discussion that everyone seemed to have come to hear. The subject was an article in the society’s “Possum Prints†newsletter.
It was a communique from state Department of Fish and Game officials who disclosed that it has been illegal since February to keep opossums as pets.
“Opossums are listed as a detrimental species and are prohibited in California,†said the Fish and Game statement. “The Fish and Game Commission has provided a person who illegally possesses a prohibited animal with three options . . . shipping the animal out of state, returning it to the point of origin or destroying it.â€
The thought of killing opossums set heads shaking around the room.
Every neighborhood can benefit from having the nocturnal creatures as residents, said Orange County resident Sandy Bryan, who came to the meeting wearing a red shirt with the words “Opossum Opower†printed on it.
Thanks to opossums she has rescued and released, there are no mice, snails or cockroaches in her neighborhood. “Not outdoors, at least,†she said with a laugh.
The meeting ended with the swapping of possum tales. And the petting of possum tails.
“Opossums are not indigenous to California. It could be that they were imported here for pest control,†Naylor said. “We try to get people to enjoy them. They part of our vanishing wildlife.â€
Society members crowded around to admire Tripod. But the most attention was directed at a towel in a second box that Naylor brought with her. Beneath the cloth, six tiny opossum babies poked out their bright little faces.
The 2 1/2-month-olds were orphaned when their mother was hit by a car in Altadena. In a few more months, they will be teen-agers in opossum years and ready to fend for themselves, Naylor said.
Despite their best possum-playing efforts, however, most survive only two or three years.
And that’s a pity, according to the Opossum Society of California.
