Life... | Story of the Week | Outbackzack

Hi Everyone, have been off social media for a while working on exciting TV project. Can't wait to to tell you about it! Below is about something that happened yesterday...

Life..

Received a call from a lovely lady about animal screams, fighting, and the smell of death at her property... Most search and rescues are filmed for my shows but this one I chose not to. When I got there the smell was strong which meant large #animal or multiple. I suited & masked up, then slithered under the house. The smell came from both ends of house meaning multiple fatalities. The deceased were up in the flooring insulation or wall somewhere. I searched for 4hrs and could not find them... so I had to give up the search. As I worked my way back to the crawl space entrance, I found this Opossum baby boy... I thought he was dead the way he laid and it had also been 2 days since the lady noticed the smell. But just as I went to pick him up his eye opened and leg moved! I ripped my goggles off! He still had #life but very little. I’ve seen animals at this stage more times than I care to remember... Its heart breaking. I quickly sliced open the canvas flooring above where there was a small hole. Opossums give birth to an average of 10-20 babies. Putting my head inside, I saw his Mom and siblings…all deceased. He was the only #survivor. Finding him was a miracle as the area was huge and it must have been a minimum of 3 days he was off his mothers milk. Hopefully he didn't drink the milk once she perished. He either crawled out of the hole which was a long way from his Mom or survived the attack... I think a feral cat had got to them as the baby had cuts. I picked him up in my hand, and his tiny hand and claws gripped my finger.. A tear dropped. “You are going to live.” I said. I slithered out with him in hand, wrapped him in a blanket, jumped in the car and raced to my #rehabilitation friend, Janet the Possum Lady. He swallowed the electrolytes from the syringe after a few attempts. This was a good sign. But its a long way back to the surface for him...

What an introduction to life. I don’t know if he will #survive… but he deserves to live. And I’m #praying he does.

Opossums are one of the most amazing species and so important..

#baby, #opossum #possum #animals #outbackzack #zackheart #hope