Opossums

You know the expression its raining cats and dogs? Well actually its raining opossums. At least it is at the nature center. I checked out three opossums when I was there on Tuesday. Most had varying degrees of frost bite on their ears and tails and were just generally thin. It was interesting to notice that each one had very different personalities.the first one I pried out of the carrier barred his teeth and hissed at me during the whole examination. The second one fought savagely to get out of my grasp and the third was calm and peaceful. Its like the seven dwarfs, so far we have sneezy, grumpy, and bashful. and we also have sleepy who lives in the cage next to the overly friendly cottontail who I have never seen awake. I wonder when happy, dopey and doc will join us.
Tuesday was also another day of bagging frozen mice! although luckily this time there were no headless ones. We spent our time choosing the cutest ones and setting them aside for our favorite animals. I think we freaked out the new volunteer, Megan. I wonder if she'll ever be back.
To everyone's delight, Max found a couple of parasites in the fecal sample of a screech owl. We spent the next 15 minutes taking turns crowding around the microscope and learning about the different parasites animals can have and how to treat them. yay! Also did you know that you can take a picture with a digital camera through a microscope? It actually turns out pretty well.
Alright I guess we'll see what sort of adventures I'll have when I go in tomorrow!

Also here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment of our lovely little red screech owl, oh and me.