Growin' Horns!

For those of you who fell in love with the baby goat I came back in a week and he'd already begun to grow horns!

It's in goats nature to climb, which might account for the charming and hysterical little leaps he was taking when he first arrived. CLICK HERE to see that -- you should not miss it if you haven't.

So now, less than 2 weeks later, he is able to get up on some things, and he was amusing himself and all of us by using a swivel chair. OH endless funnies... but we tear ourselves away to go back to cleaning and feeding. PS: I promise you, in real life I don't talk with the high squeaky voice you hear on these videos!

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Cute Little Soft Little Warm Little Guys

OK, I admit it. I have lived my entire life without ever seeing an opossum... My only reference was to Granny's constant mention of opossum recipes on the Beverly Hillbillies...which should give you a guess at how long I've been on the planet with nary an encounter. Tsktsk, such a city girl.

Until I started to volunteer at the Wildlife Rehab... and then I started to clean out their stinky cages. They are STINKY! But that is the only bad thing I can say about them. I find them quite amenable. They look like a big rat but they are actually marsupials; like koalas and kangaroos they have a pouch in which to carry their young.

I know they have more teeth than any other animal, but they are really quite harmless. They open their mouth to show them when a threat (in this case, US) approaches them. I totally understand that... I am always mindful that when we humans peer at or reach in for any of these creatures, it has to be akin to alien abduction for them. I'd personally be quite terrified, even if the giant hand and face was trying it's best to feed, comfort, medicate and heal me.. and make sure I have fresh sheets and that the temperature is just right, etc...

We use a baton to technically hold them back when changing the paper in their cages and putting in food, but I have never known one to snap or be aggressive. How many people call, having found one eating cat food in their garage, asking if they should shoot it! Um, no. Just take the food away, wait til they leave and shut your garage door more often. In fact, these harmless little guys eat most of the things people think are pests -- snakes, rats, even cockroaches. And they are less likely to carry rabies than you think. Only trained people should try to handle them however.

This really nice mama opossum let the vet tech pick her up so we could check on the babies, and I asked if I could quick snap a picture. The mother is only smiling that way because she's being grasped by the extra skin behind the neck (same place that cats pick up their young). It makes them look scary.

I found this fascinating: They have from 5 to 25 babies but only 13-15 teats (hopefully all working). Whomever gets there fastest wins a shot at life... survival of the fittest at work. They have to crawl about 2 inches from the birth canal to the pocket or marsupium (you can see this better below) and latch on to a teat for milk. There they stay for anywhere between 70-125 days. (See their little tails sticking out?). I expected to see a horizontal pouch slit, like kangaroos have, but the opossums is vertical. Isn't that amazing?
Once they are bigger, they stay by their mom for a while before going on their way. I got some training on how to feed the orphaned babies, which we are getting in at this time of year by the handful. I'll write about that once I actually do it. In the mean time I picked up this fella to get comfortable handling him and was amazed at how soft, warm and cute he was. (Cracks me up that he starts out holding on to his foot -watch for it below)

So remember to be kind to and not afraid of opossums. And please do look out for them when you're driving at night!