A woman was tending to her backyard garden when something unusual caught her eye. What at first looked like a trick of the light turned out to be a pair of tiny hands reaching desperately out of a stormwater pipe.
It was a possum — stuck headfirst inside and unable to get free.
“[She] just happened to glance over and saw the possum’s little arms poking out the bottom of the stormwater pipe,” Tracy, a volunteer with WIRES wildlife rescue, told The Dodo.
This wasn’t the first time, either. The same curious possum had gotten into trouble in that very pipe once before. The first time, the homeowner heard him fall and called WIRES for help. But this time, things looked far more serious.
“When I arrived, I felt sick because the possum was barely moving,” Tracy said. “Given they are nocturnal, it must have been stuck upside down in that confined space for several hours … I did not have high hopes for him.”
Knowing how quickly trapped possums can decline from stress and exhaustion, Tracy worked carefully but urgently to free him. Once out, his condition was critical.
“He was very weak and barely moving,” Tracy said. “I wrapped him in a blanket and gave him fluids as he was very dehydrated and exhausted. Then I transported him to the animal hospital as quickly as I could.”
The little possum was soaking wet, drained of energy, and barely hanging on — but he was alive. After a few hours on a drip, he slowly began to recover. Once stable, he was transferred back into Tracy’s care, where she nursed him for a week.
“Once he was climbing around, eating his natural foods again, and generally happy and healthy, I released him back where he had been rescued in his own possum box in a tree in the backyard,” Tracy said.
To prevent future accidents, neighbors worked together to fit filters on their gutters so no more wildlife could get trapped in the dangerous pipes. They’ll all be keeping an eye out for this adventurous little possum — but hopefully his days of getting stuck are behind him.
