On a recent drive through Columbia, Pennsylvania, a couple were confused to notice a fluffy gray blob perched at the top of a barbed wire fence. Intrigued, the couple pulled over to get a better look. As they approached, the couple realized the fuzz ball was actually a distressed possum whose fur was stuck to the frayed metal wires.
“The poor creature was soaking wet, shaking and paralyzed with fear,” Raven Ridge Wildlife Center wrote in a Facebook post about the rescue.
Raven Ridge Wildlife Center
In need of expert help, the couple phoned Raven Ridge Wildlife Center. Soon, seasoned animal rescuer Tracie Young was at the scene. By the time she arrived, a few workmen from the metal processing plant just beyond the fence were gathered with the couple, keeping an eye on the fearful possum.
“They were just like, ‘We don’t know what to do,’ because [the possum] was shaking, and it was raining and it was cold,” Young told The Dodo. “And I said, ‘Who has a ladder?’”
Raven Ridge Wildlife Center
After obtaining permission to climb the fence, Young ascended a ladder and, clad in a pair of welding gloves, gently plucked the possum from where she was stuck. Then, she wrapped the animal in a towel and put her in a crate.
Back at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center, the possum got a checkup. Staff members were pleased to find that she’d survived her ordeal mostly unscathed.
“We discovered that she had a few scrapes, but nothing too serious, except for perhaps her embarrassment,” the rescue wrote in the Facebook post.
In time, the possum was released back into the wild, free to continue her life. Young was thrilled for the resilient animal.
“It always makes me feel so much better getting them where they belong,” Young said.
