Marsupial Madness : Critter Love Blossoms in Society for Possums

Judging from the calls to county animal control offices, giant rats would seem to be invading Orange County.

Every day, the complaints come in: They’re climbing my fence, turning over my trash can, threatening my dogs, cats and kids.

In fact, animal experts say, there’s nothing wrong with opossums that a good P.R. campaign couldn’t cure.

“They do resemble huge rats, and that’s what weirds people out about them,” said Judy Maitlen, director of the Orange County Animal Control Shelter. “Frankly, they are the most shy, benign little creatures around.”

Enter the Opossum Society of America, a 450-member national group begun in Irvine that is dedicated to improving the opossum’s image.

To the society, the opossum is the Forrest Gump of the animal kingdom. With a gait more suited to waddling than running, they are picked on by coyotes and dogs, run over by cars and generally vilified by mankind.

So, fuzzy marsupials in hand, members make the circuit of home and garden shows, schools and nursing homes. But more importantly, the society has set up a chain of homes where members rehabilitate injured opossums and raise their orphaned offspring. Last year, more than 2,600 opossums were treated in Orange County homes alone and released in nearby rural areas.

During the spring when opossums reproduce, Lynn Holstein’s back yard and garage in Mission Viejo looks like a MASH unit for long-nosed, beady-eyed critters.

Residents call her when they find an opossum injured by a car. County and city animal officers know her telephone number by heart.

A former nurse, Holstein has had to care for 40 opossums at once in cages she made by hand. For as long as 18 hours a day during the busy season, she binds their wounds and nurses pink-skinned offspring no longer than two inches.

Officials say it is illegal to have that many opossums but that Holstein was given a special permit from the state.

“The first time you raise a litter of abandoned babies, you’re hooked,” Holstein said.

“They really grow on you. They start out as helpless babies and you syringe feed them, watch them become independent and finally see them strike out on her own.”

After four years and hundreds of releases, Holstein said she is only now learning how not to cry each time they disappear into the woods.

It’s an emotional experience for caretakers to let go of their charges, which is why they rarely name them.

“It’s the hardest part of the whole job, because you know wherever you release them, there are predators,” such as coyotes, said Paula Taylor, a board member of the opossum society. “It’s a short, hard life for them.”

Opossums usually live no longer than two years in the urban/rural environment and about four years in captivity, say wildlife experts.

Still, other than birds and mice, opossums are one of most common species of wildlife found in the suburban back yard.

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The only marsupial in North America, they sleep up to 20 hours a day, then forage in the early morning. Most close encounters with humans and pets occur near open trash cans or bowls of pet foot.

This is where their image starts to go bad.

With their pointed faces and thick, hairless tails, opossums do resemble huge rats. When startled, their mouths open wide like an alligator, exposing sharp teeth, then drool thickly.

This is when the average person runs for the phone.

“These are truly some of our most common calls,” said Maitlen. “They complain that they’re going to hurt the cat or cause the dog to bark.

“But we don’t see any problems with possums,” she said. “It’d be nice if people would get over their problems with appearance and learn to coexist with possums, because they are pretty useful little animals.” Opossums, for instance, eat grubs, bugs, snails and garbage.

Opossum society caretakers say the creatures often are the target of abuse.

Until she died of respiratory failure two weeks ago, Maggie the Possum was the poster child for the Opossum Society. Taylor, her owner, said Maggie’s mother was killed by a man with a baseball bat. Maggie, a baby still clinging to her mother’s pouch, suffered a broken back.

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Eventually, the opossum could get around by herself, dragging hind legs behind her. For over three years, Taylor took the crippled opossum to schools as an example of man’s cruelty to small things.

“She was the most sweet and trusting animal,” Taylor said. “Children never found her grotesque. The bigger children were usually sickened by the fact that people could do something like that.”

When people ask Holstein why she does what she does, “I don’t usually have a good answer,” she said.

“Maybe it’s just my way of giving back what we’ve taken from them.”

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Possum Tales

Opossums sometimes are a nuisance, but knowing how to deal with them can make coexistence easier. Some opossum facts:

* They do not have permanent nests, but tend to hide in one place for two or three days and move

* They have soft, rounded opposable thumbs and no fingernails on hind feet

* Growling and teeth-baring are scare tactics; they prefer to avoid confrontations

* At birth, offspring crawl to the mother’s pouch to finish gestation. At 4 1/2 months, young fend for themselves

* Fossil remains can be traced back 70 million years

Opossums often make nests under homes or in attics and back yards. To keep them at bay:

* Block all holes leading to crawl spaces under homes and decks.

* Eliminate access to roofs by trimming tree branches.

* Clear wood piles or debris from ground.

* Do not leave pet food outside at night.

* Secure garbage can lids or store cans inside garage.

Sources: The Opossum Society of the United States, Times reports; Researched by APRIL JACKSON / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times