Hi. My name is Victor, and I was born sometime in January of this year. My story of how I came to be in Hot Springs, AR is a sad one. My 8 brothers and sisters and I were comfortably settled in my mother's pouch when, one day, a mean car ran over us all somewhere in Missouri. Us little ones survived the blow, but our momma died. We were all still tucked away in her pouch, scared and confused.
Fortunately, a nice human woman found us and took us all home with her. She fed us with a medicine dropper, kept us warm, and made us go potty. It wasn't long until she called up her friend, Calvin, and sent all nine of us to live with him in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He has been raising orphaned opossums like us for years and years. Since baby opossums are very time-consuming to care for, Calvin found most of us other homes when we were about 8 weeks old. That's how I met my adoptive parents, Elan and Ric, and my new brother and sister, Valentino and Rowan.
They have taken very good care of me. When I first went home with them, they fed me dishes of warm Esbilac (the puppy milk replacer) and kept me warm in a cushioned box with a heated sock full of rice. They fed me every 3-4 hours and afterwards stimulated me with a moist Q-tip to make me use the bathroom. Later, they fed me the Esbilac mixed with baby food in flavors like applesauce and banana. When I was able to potty all by myself, I began to eat solid foods -- veggies and fruits and occasionally a little meat.
For a while, I lived in a really cool hamster cage with an exercise wheel, water bottle, a little sleeping hut and elevators to other rooms. But, I've grown so much, I can't fit in there anymore. For now, I'm sleeping in a big cat carrier with a bigger hut and lots of cedar chips for bedding. But, Elan and Ric let me run around the living room a lot when they are home.