Highlights from the week...

We received a call earlier in the week from a woman who had found an opossum sleeping in her storage shed, curled up in on a blanket in a whicker basket.

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Since that's really not too unusual, seeing that she stores the cat food there and the door is left open... We gave her some ideas on using natural, nontoxic repellant oils to try and get the creature to vacate.

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A couple days went by and the opossum was still there. What was curious - it was in the basket at 5:00 a.m., 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. when it maybe should have been out foraging.

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We purposefully scheduled the call later in the day - close to evening so if the animal appeared well, it would have at least gotten a good day's sleep before we set it on its way.

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When we arrived, sure enough, the opossum, a female, was curled up in the basket. We expected a little more of a fight when she was collected and brought out to be examined. She had the sniffles and something going with her left eye... enough that we felt she should be admitted for a thorough exam. She was transported to Native Animal Rescue, Santa Cruz, CA.

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Our next adventure was the release of a skunk that had been inadvertently trapped. We released it right where it was - at home. Thankfully, relocation of wildlife is prohibited in California. Not only is relocation extremely cruel - certainly not the answer to resolving conflicts with wildlife, but it can spread disease among wild populations.

Here's the video of the release.