So there I was getting out of my car on a Wednesday night at 9:00pm. I was in shorts and the sweat was still streaming down my face from my workout.
Out of nowhere I hear this voice yell out my name. It is pitch black and I can’t see anything, but I hear my name spoken for a second time. I look around and see my neighbors calling me over to their property. As I got closer they said there is a possum stuck between our fences. Of course I had this look of, "Are you kidding me? And of course even if it was true, what do you want me to do about it?"
Finally I said, "Ok let me see." Sure enough I hold the flashlight to the fenced in area where this ugly-looking possum was not only looking at me but hissing and showing me what appeared to be a TON of sharp teeth. My next door neighbors are talking and say we could hit it over the head or call animal control.
After discussion we decided to help the possum. I said do you have something that we could use to push it back towards my property and see if that helps. My next door neighbor responds with "How about a broom? We can put it in its mouth and push it out that way?"
After pausing for a second (yes in shock that he said it), I responded with "I am no possum expert, but if we put a broom stick in its mouth and push it back, it might hurt a ton – just my opinion."
Anyway we went over to my property to see if I had anything a little more gentle and sure enough I did. Now I am standing a few feet behind this disgusting looking animal and can only see its back and of course it is still hissing. I could see what it was caught on and finally was able (without hurting it) to gently push it through the fence.
As it scurried away into the woods, the three of us actually felt good about saving the animal.
- Have you ever saved an animal?
- Can you describe the experience?
Look forward to reading your comments.
Fee Sepahi says:
The visual of you and your workout outfit and the sharpened teeth, are WAY TOO funny.
I have two stories, one a Yay and one a Boo….Starting with the Boo:
I tried to save an animal once, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, whom no one could deal with as he was really mean and bit more than a couple of souls. I thought with my kind streak and my love for animals, I could transform him, but alas he even bit me and I ended up putting him down.
Now for the Yay, I used to have a fabulous, handsome Doberman Pincher named Rashid. This was the kindest, most lovable, polite dog on the planet. He was so friendly that my friends would show up and take him on outings whenever they felt like it. I would put my dinner plate of food on the coffee table, at his level, and walk away to get a drink etc. and he would never imagine looking in the plates direction.
This one day a friend Bob took Rashid to the Indian Pow Wow at the park, and being the trustworthy, polite dog that he was, Bob left him alone in his truck with a cooler full of raw chicken breasts, for the BBQ, about 20lbs if I recall. Bob called me in a panic that Rashid had gotten into the cooler and devoured ALL the chicken.
I quickly rushed to meet them at the park, to find Rashid all bloated, laying on his side and unable to breath. We rushed him to the pet ER at University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, where they managed to pump out his stomach and he recovered within a few hours. He never ate raw meet, again!!!
Melanie says:
Our back porch area is apparently very appealing to barn swallows. People say they bring good luck, but they also bring a mess. And when the nests have eggs or babies, the parents can be very territorial. I need to figure out a way for them to pay rent, since they want ownership rights.
Once when we went out back, we immediately noticed a baby bird had fallen out of the nest. (Lucky for the baby birdie, our puppy had been inside most of the day!). We couldn’t just leave it there. We had heard you shouldn’t touch a baby bird or the mother will reject it (does anyone know if that’s actually true?), plus we wanted to be sanitary, so my husband put on a glove and placed the baby bird back in the nest. After we backed away, the parents came back. The baby bird survived and flew away a few weeks later! It was such a small thing, but it mattered to us.
Ed Sugar says:
This is hardly a tale of saving a wild animal, but it is close enough for government work.
Last Halloween a stray cat came to our door. This was two weeks after a brush fire had forced us out of our home for 2 days. We started to feed him as he was very friendly and in need of a home. On November 14th another brush fire forced us to evacuate. As we were loading our cars, we saw the cat by the side of our house. For a second or two my wife and I thought we had the opportunity to take him with us, but he got freaked and took off. We both thought that was the last we had seen of him. Two days later, while I was moving back into our house, I heard a sound outside and to my surprise it was our friend. For the next month, my wife and I were not sure what to do with him, as we were scheduled to take a 3 week vacation in South America beginning in mid December. We tried to get friends to adopt him, but had no takers. We already had 3 cats of our own, but felt we did not have the time nor energy to bring in a new member and then leave for 3 weeks. It would of been unfair burden for our cat sitter. Two days before we were due to fly down to Argentina, it began to rain heavily. That morning our friend was sitting in the rain looking into our enclosed patio where our cats are allowed to roam and sleep. I decided to make an executive decision. I sealed off the patio from our 3 cats and then let the stray into the patio area. I figured our 3 girls could suffer as house cats for the duration of our holiday, while the stray male would have the safety of the enclosed patio. Our cat sitter was given instructions to take care of all 4 cats and keep them separate until we got back (we cartainly had no clue how healthy he was). We also told her that if the stray male wanted to be released to let him out. For the next 3 weeks, my wife and I enjoyed our South America trip, but everyday we wondered out loud about if the stray male would still be at our home when we returned. We got home at around noon on a Sunday and sure enough our boy, Pip, was there in the patio. At 1 PM we phoned our vet and made an appointment to take him in. At 10 AM the next day we were at the vet with Pip and found out he needed to be neutered. That afternoon we got word that his blood test were negative for feline diseases. The next day he got neutered and was back at our home the following afternoon.
Pip has been with us for over a year now. Many of our friends agreed that he hit the jackpot when he stopped by our house last Halloween. He is now a big fat house cat, surrounded by 3 females who just love him and two humans who feel that he is the silver lining that came out of two evacuations due to fire.
Tammie says:
Ed – that is so you! You’re my knight in shining cat-armor!!
Tammie
Lynn Stalone says:
I have some good ones – though not all wild animals.
The first was the puppy I saved one year as a kid on a water skiing trip to the Colorado River. The puppy was swimming in the river by the floating bar and I plucked her out. No one claimed her in the two weeks we were there. Very cute Spuds MacKenzie looking puppy complete with one black ear. My dad said I could keep it and my mother reluctantly agreed. I named her Schiada after my favorite boat. The dog continued to have a death wish, however – jumped the fence and got hit by a car (broken leg), ate snail poison pellets (pumped stomach), got bit by a snake (large vet bill) and so on until she finally did herself in. I think we must have saved that dog at least 10 times. When I say “we”, I mean my parents who easily could have let the crazy animal go since she cost them a fortune.
Next, there was a tortoise. We found him in the street and he had been hit by a car and his shell was cracked. Nursed him back to health and dubbed him “Speedy.” Speedy lived happily in the yard for years. One day, he just disappeared (ran away from home, apparently).
My first horse in a long series was an Appaloosa. A fantastic animal that was my best friend for years. I put my heart and soul into training that horse and we had a great run in the rodeo/gymkhana circuit in CA. He was so well trained, that when he started to go blind, no one noticed. It happened pretty quickly, but not until he was fully blind, and ran through a short obstacle, did I realize something was wrong. We really were in disbelief when the vet told us the next day. Cataracts were the culprit and the vet recommended we put him down. Here is where the heroic efforts come in. My dad talked to several equine experts and there was one veterinarian doing experimental equine cataract surgery and he was in SoCal. So, my horse became one of the first to get cataract surgery – back in 1975. He got cloudy vision back and a couple more good years of life. As an adult, I am honestly hard pressed today to say I would even consider doing this, but my parents are pretty special people.
The latest was what I thought was a lizard swimming in our pool. Turned out to be a baby rat. I fished it out of the pool and let it dry out and head back to wherever home was. Even a rat deserves a second chance.
Paul Kirch says:
This story was great, especially since I’ve seen you doing animal rescue before. It was about 4 years ago when we found a snake that had journeyed into your house. I am not sure what scared me more, the ice tongs you gave me to try and pick him up or the box with the hole in the bottom that I put him in. It was clear that we were both not cut out for animal control. Well, that was before this story.
Tammie says:
All great stories! I stopped in a busy road to rescue a small dog stuck in the meridian- scared to death to move. It had a vet # on the collar but no answer, so we took her home. Next day we connected and her owners came to get her – very happy. The dog had never been away from home, but an earlier thunderstorm and scared her and she ran. Then there was the kitten. When we lived in the city, some boys were in and around a tree, all laughing. I came out to investigate, and found they were continuously dropping the kitten onto a branch (5 ft from ground) to watch its claws stick. After a brief verbal argument (I won) I took the kitten inside. It took quite a while to convince my then fairly new husband to have a pet (he’d never had one) and actually made it to the humane society when he realized if we gave it away, we’d have to buy it back. He decided he’d rather spend the money on a vet bill. And voila – our first cat! He was an amazingly tiny, playful kitty -we’re pretty sure had only been in the street – but took to a litter box. He was very undernourished and all the usual street cat bugs etc, but became our faithful pet (and first cat for me!) for 18 years. But I think a possum takes WAY more guts to save! Good for you!
Kelly Heatly says:
I have been a part of saving many a possum and raccoon, having grown up in Dallas neighborhoods where these “cute” pests run rampant. It’s quite common to set out cage traps in the “problem area” (i.e., under your deck, by the trash can), and then carry the animals off to the country or the woods. The big joke is that everyone is just transplanting these pests from one area to another. Of course, the possum will never appreciate your valiant efforts and will hiss accordingly.
Christopher Dallion says:
Many years ago when I was working new home construction I was on a job site when this adorable kitten came strolling into the house. He was about 6 weeks old and looked as though he had been living on his own for a couple of weeks. He had oil in his fur and was infested with fleas but he was so sweet.
When we broke for lunch I took him back to my apartment and hid him for some time before I got hit with a pet deposit. I took him over to my mother’s house to show him off and the first thing he did was bite my sister on the end of her nose while standing on her chest. She hated him after that and it set the stage for the kind of cat he became.
Bogie (Merrill will certainly understand why I chose that name for him) turned out to be a one owner cat for some time. Whenever anyone would come to my apartment he would hiss at them and swat them. No one would believe me when I would tell them how sweet he could be when he would climb up on my chest and sleep while purring the whole time.
As he has aged he’s gotten only slightly better with strangers – now he hisses and leaves. Bogie has to endure 1 other cat (another rescue named Lauren), 3 dogs (pitbull, border collie mix & white long haired chihuahua), 2 kids and my wife. He has lived with Lauren for several years and is fine with her – he even cleans her. He tolerates the dogs but does sometimes play with the chihuahua – it’s hilarious to watch him swat her hard and she just keeps on bouncing around him. He loves my wife and does okay with my son but better with my daughter.
Bogie just turned 15 in October and is still going strong. He plays like a kitten but he definitely sets the rules on who is allowed to pet him or be close to him at any given moment. He still loves me more than anyone and I love that cranky old man. I could go on about rescuing Lauren or my pitbull but that’s enough from me
Merrill Dubrow says:
Last night I was driving and all of a sudden I saw this big animal in the street waddling towards me. As I started to slow down I thought it may have been a possum and actually was close to my house and thought “maybe it was the same one I saved” . As I got a little closer I noticed it was too big to be my fury friend and looked alot different – first of all this was cute. As he turned towards the side I rolled down my window and actually started to talk to him (I guess pretending to be Dr Doolittle) I noticed he had this odd looking tale – actually it was a paddle. Must admit really cool to see that close. I beeped the horn and flashed my lights so other cars knew to slow down. well – maybe I didn’t save the little guy but I did stay long enough to ensure he made it to the other side – boo he was cute!
Needed to share. happy holidays!
Merrill
Jennie says:
I WOULD HAVE PAID MONEY TO SEE THAT!!!!