This story is Dedicated to My Best Friend Linda Sweeney.

I Popeye (the sailorman) Opossum, at an early age of 2 months old misplaced my mother. I crawled around in the grass for a few days looking for her, but I never found mom. I was cold and hungry.

I became very careless, and a human snuck up behind me and snatched me up. Even though I was only 2 months old, I still hissed and struggled. I even tried to bite the hand that held me, but too no avail.

The human took me inside and wrapped me in a real soft warm blanket. The human decided immediately that she wanted to keep me as a pet “after all, I was cute and almost cuddly!” “Remember I did try to bite her!” Fortunately for me, the human was a very nice lady.

Unfortunately for me, she had never done this before and did not know what was necessary to do to care for me. My keeper realized I wasn’t weaned yet and would be a handful to hand feed.

In no time my new keeper became my surrogate mommy, she filled a syringe full of milk, held me firmly, and stuck the syringe into my mouth and gently squeezed until a bit of milk got on my tongue and I swallowed. At first, I thought it was the most terrible stuff in the world. “I did put up a fight!” but it didn’t take long and I got used to it. “I was really hungry!” and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. “Don’t tell mom though.”

To be truthful, I wasn’t sure life was worth living without my mother. But my surrogate mom knew how I felt and wrapped me in a soft warm blanket and would hold me against her own body so I would feel her warmth. “Believe me a little opossum could get used to that in a hurry!”

After a few weeks, I began eating some soft foods on my own. The next thing I knew, she was taking my syringe away from me and my milk was offered to me in a saucer. “What an insult!” Now I had to start all over again and figure out how to slurp my milk from a saucer. “That was hard!

Well, I am now 5 months old and as I mentioned before, my surrogate mom was a very nice lady, but she had never raised an opossum before. I had not been fed the correct foods for the last few months (I am not complaining hotdogs, cookies, etc. are not bad!). However, if opossums are not given the correct nutrition we will develop something called metabolic bone disease, which will cause our bones to grow incorrectly and unfortunately now I am sick.

My jaw is deformed and I am having a difficult time eating, my legs are twisted because the bones have not developed correctly, I am unable to walk, and I am just a “wreck”. Oh, I don’t even have a name yet! “What a bummer!”

Now anyone would think that things could not be any worse but, I heard mom talking to a wildlife rehabilitator today and they were talking about me.

Well, first of all, “what is a wildlife rehabilitator?” And second, “how dare she consider me to be wildlife!” And third, “now I am not only sick, but highly insulted!”

The next morning mom woke me up, started taking my favorite blanket away and I thought to myself “it’s not laundry day, why is she taking my blanket?” Mom picked me up and said we are going for a ride to see the wildlife rehabber. Again, I was insulted; “I am not wildlife!”

When we got there, this nice lady by the name of Linda started looking at me from the front of the carrier. She and mom were just talking away and I could tell it was about me. The next thing I knew Linda was opening the door and pulling me out of the carrier, well that wasn’t too bad but I decided to put up a little bit of a snarl and hiss, “after all she was not my mom!”  Linda stood there holding me and petting and looking me over with a fine toothcomb. All of this wasn’t too bad, I was getting a lot of attention but here comes the bummer again. Linda said that I had to stay with her. This just was not going to work, you need to remember first I lost my mother, second I found a surrogate mom and now she is going away. “I felt like my whole world had come to an end all over again!” But Linda cuddled me and said don’t worry little Popeye, I will take good care of you. I thought to myself why are you calling me Popeye even my surrogate mom didn’t call me by a name. “This was kind of neat but don’t tell Linda!”

Well the next morning I was a bit depressed, mom was gone, and I did not know anything about this other lady. The next thing I knew was here comes Linda with all kinds of good things for me to eat and she was singing Popeye the sailorman to me. “I was quite impressed!” Well, needless to say she and I became the best of friends and in no time at all she became my new mom.

My new mom worked with me everyday, she massaged my poor crippled legs, and in time I was starting to walk on my own again. I was still crippled, but I was able to walk. Oh, and she would sing Popeye the sailorman to me each and every morning. “Now was that not special!” “This mom has become the best!”

I have been with my new mom for over a year now and because she is a wildlife rehabber I have gotten to meet a lot of new friends such as: Pere, the skunk, baby raccoons, baby squirrels and my favorite friend Raggy Ann, another opossum. I have also heard mom talking about some animals that I never got the pleasure to meet, like little Midge. It is my understanding that she was a baby raccoon that did not make it and she had no mother, nor did she have any brother or sisters. Mom got really sad when she talked about and that would make me sad also.

I am Popeye (the sailorman) Opossum and I am 20 months old now. Unfortunately, my mom has done all that she could for me but metabolic bone disease causes a lot of damage to animals and humans. I have had two strokes in the last couple of days and I am not going to be here much longer.

I wanted to write this story to let my mother know just how much she has meant to me over this past year and how much she has given me. I had asked mom to let me take little Midge with me when I go, so she would have someone to care for her like mom has cared for me.

Even though I didn’t show it all the time, mom has taken very good care of me and has been my best friend. I want to leave her with only one statement:

“Thank You, Mom (Linda Sweeney) for: “Giving Me Care When Care Was Needed”.   

“Mom I Love You!” Signed: Popeye (the sailorman) Opossum

Popeye (the sailorman) Opossum pasted away on July 25, 2008 and will be missed by many.
Popeye lived at Forest Babies Rehab.