When Hamilton Wildlife Shelter in Australia got a call about a ringtail possum caught between two gate poles, they sent someone to check it out immediately. The caller had been pretty sure that the possum hadn’t made it, so the rescuer, Shelly Burrowes,
braced herself for a sad scene.
It took Burrowes a bit to locate the possum, but she eventually found him. As she went to remove the poor possum, she got quite the surprise.
“My first thought as I lifted it was, ‘You're still limp, not stiff,’ quickly followed by, ‘Oh, and you're still warm-ish in the belly area, must've only passed away early this morning,’” Burrowes wrote on the Hamilton Wildlife Shelter Facebook page. “But then … I saw an arm move. Then the eyes opened.”
Burrowes realized that the possum was still alive and sprang into action. He was clearly struggling and needed help fast. She was having trouble lifting him high enough to get him out of his predicament, so she pulled her car right up to the gate, climbed on the hood and managed to free him.
She rushed the possum back to the shelter and began giving him the care he needed. Burrowes knew he wasn’t out of the woods yet, but as the day went on, he perked up more and more.
“He was so cold and barely responsive, but as the day has progressed and with warmth, he has come back to life,” Burrowes wrote.
The possum was bruised and sore from his ordeal, and his rescuer made sure he received lots of fluids and pain meds. He’s still being monitored closely, but he’s already moving around and feeling so much better.
Once he’s fully healed, he’ll hopefully be able to rejoin the wild thanks to his rescuer, who refused to give up on him.
