Opossums have a tough time in residential neighborhoods and sometimes there just isn’t anywhere for them to go. So what does a mama opossum do when she’s ready to give birth? Well, this one found her way into the walls of a house in Braintree, Massachusetts.

When the homeowners began hearing scratching sounds inside the wall, they knew they had a visitor and were eager to undertake a gentle rescue. They brought mama and three babies to the New England Wildlife Center in South Weymouth and happily said their goodbyes, wishing the little family well.

“Mom opossum was thin and frightened when she arrived and her babies were very hungry,”said Katrina Bergman, the Center’s Executive Director.

Just the Beginning

But that turned out to be just the beginning of this wild rescue.

“Apparently, the nursing opossum had gotten stuck and her babies were scattered everywhere,” Katrina explains. “The following day 5 more babies were admitted!”

So now mama opossum was fast at work nursing eight babies in the wildlife center. She was eating well and the babies were stable. But again and again, the homeowners returned to the center with more little ones in cardboard boxes.

“Opossum babies continued to trickle in to the hospital every day, until, finally, all 11 were safe and sound with their mom,” Katrina said.

Turns out that locating a 2 inch critter inside a fully constructed house is a treasure hunt for only the most determined. And while many homeowners would have simply let it go, this family continued to search and scour, with unplanned ‘renovations’ to make sure that every last baby had been rescued.

“Today is the best kind of day at New England Wildlife Center,” Katrina said as the opossum mama and her babies were released into an expansive natural habitat.(Source)