Our baby possum was euthanized today. His name was Mordecai, and we had found him after my brother accidentally stepped on him while running a porch on our newspaper route the night before last. He squeaked, but did not move or attack, like most possums do- anyone who knows possums knows that they are generally quite vicious. But this little guy was frightened, and likely hurt, so we took him home with us to look after him. He took right to us, very unusually, because possums are generally very anti-social. We could feed him from our hands, pick him up, pet him, and hold him, very much like a cat. He was adorable!
But today we took him to a shelter to ensure that he was healthy, and they told us that he had suffered internal bleeding when stepped on, and was messed up inside. We humanely chose to have him euthanized rather than let him suffer.
I feel so terrible for Mordecai. He was so adorable, and extremely sociable for a possum, and I just feel dreadful that he had to die. He didn't deserve death, but we couldn't just leave him, knowing that he was likely hurt. The folks at the shelter said we did the right thing by all accounts, with taking him home with us, and to the shelter, but I still feel terrible.
Poor little Mordecai... we miss you.

My older sister Iva and Mordecai
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Mordecai smells the cat food I was bringing for him to eat.
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