Getting started

My wife & I first joined Fauna Rescue late in 2009, we attended a new members workshop and then signed up for basic training in Possum care to be followed by Reptile care. These whole day training sessions give you basic skills and knowledge for the role of wildlife carer. 

Possum training at Fauna Rescue

It's not until we met and talked to our local Possum Coordinator (L) that we got a real sense of what we were signing up for… L didn’t pull any punches! she greeted us with ”be ready for long hours, a 7day/week commitment, lots of hard work, 3 hourly feeds, collecting food every 2-4 days and plenty of heart ache when the possum doesn’t make it!” 

A year on I understand why L was so harsh from the get go, she needed to be sure we were serious and prepared. I’m glad she was so honest and forthright, as we’ve had sick and injured possum that have died in our arms, or we’ve taken to be euthanased, my wife in particular has often done 3 hourly feeding sessions and every 2-3 days I go out looking for leaves to feed the possums… pouring rain, wind & hail or +40°C [+104°F] they need feeding,  so out I go! Without this pre-knowledge and the chance to make the informed decision to give it a go we may well have dropped out quite early on.

L has many years experience and therefore provided us with more specifics on methods of handling and capturing the possums, on feeding, setting up our cage/aviary and on identifying & dealing with sickness. Her ongoing support has given us the confidence to continue and overcome the many new [for us] problems associated with caring for wildlife.

A selection of hand made possum pouches

Following the meetings with L, we decided that Possums would be enough work for us and canceled our booking for Reptile training, a decision I’ve not regretted as we’ve been flat out learning about possums this first year.

As new carers we needed to work out where we were going to home the possums, a small cage was loaned to us to get started & plans were made to convert a back bedroom into a possum nursery and the spare shed into an aviary… out came the tools and a few weekends later we were ready…ish ! 

We must have passed the tests and been deemed capable enough by L, because on the 03 May we were told to pick up our first bundle of fur from another carer who only checked and stabilized the babies, then handed them on for full time care.

Into our lives came a baby Brush-tail, a little boy named Ollie. 
So began the start of something wonderful…

Ollie and I become acquainted... I think the grape helped!