This story is shared courtesy of the Arnold Sentinel
What do you do when you find a marsupial and a mostly gone cake on your deck in a fast growing urban area?
Well, former Arnold resident Kimberly “Kim” Doggett couldn’t just shoo it away; it wouldn’t budge off the deck furniture. Kim, who spent time on and off the farm throughout childhood, and is now a city girl, turned to the only resource she knew.
Kim, who is a 1987 A.H.S. grad and a real estate agent in the Gretna area, said the Virginia opossum was discovered on the family’s deck furniture at 9:10 p.m. on February 9. She had ran out of space to store a Costco chocolate mousse cake, so she put it out on the deck – something they commonly do in the winter with lots of family around.
When her son went to put some homemade peanut butter balls outside to set up, he discovered the stuffed opossum and the half-eaten cake. They tried to move the opossum along, but it didn’t look right. Knowing that chocolate is poisonous to dogs, the family Googled chocolate and opossums.
Their next move was to call the Nebraska Humane Society.
“The animal control officer must have come out of Omaha; he was there in 40 minutes, which was pretty fast. He was really good. He said (opussums) are like cats, and he had never been bitten. He picked her up and put her in a little pet carrier” she said.
The wildlife rescue organization Nebraska Wildlife Rehab then took charge. The opossum received activated charcoal and fluids on intake and got a full health checkup, including X-rays and bloodwork. Notes said the opossum was panting, but mobile and alert.
The opossum got lucky when the treating doctors at the Baldwin Wildlife Center & Hubbard Family Wildlife Hospital found she had unrelated lead toxicity – a common issue in wildlife.
Story Goes Viral
Just as surprising as finding the opossum was what happened after Nebraska Wildlife Rehab posted about the half eaten cake on their Facebook page. The February 11 post went viral. By February 12, the rehab’s post had 10.7K views, 1.1K comments, and 2.5K shares.
The Omaha World Herald did a story, the Grand Island Independent picked it up, and then Kim found herself being contacted through Messenger by The Washington Post, with 2.5 million digital subscribers, and Forbes, which has over 1 million digital subscribers. The Omaha Costco fan page had plenty of fun comments when the story was posted there, with someone asking who made the cake.
“It’s insane. It’s quite hilarious,” said Kim. “People want something to laugh about, because everything’s so darned serious now.”
She’ll Be Back
After several weeks of treatment and supportive care to chelate the lead from the opossums body, Kim said she is looking forward to seeing her around the neighborhood. Through the encounter, the family learned the benefits the opossum – North America’s only native marsupial – has for an area like theirs, like eating ticks and bugs.
But the family will take precautions when putting food out on the deck from here on out.
“I’ve lived here almost nine years and have never seen an opossum on our deck or any animal,” she said. “Our deck is pretty high, so we didn’t think anything would come up. (The opossum) really had to work at it to get up here. The poor thing was lucky it was my deck.“
