My "wild" life! part 2

To follow up with our attempt to raise the little opossum. We thought everything was going good and I researched and learned a lot about opossums. I was even able to learn the little opossum was a female.

If trying to care for one creature that I had previously really knew nothing about a second little opossum showed up in our backyard.

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The difference was this one was not moving at all. After some quick research,I learned that "playing opossum" was not only real, but something they really had no control of. Also this could last anywhere from 30 minutes to 4 hours.

I picked the little guy up and put him in a box in a quiet dark place just as I did with the little girl. Unfortunately, we quickly learned this little boy was paralyzed. He was unable to move his back legs at all. He didn't seem to have any pain and was eating really well.

After a few days, we put the two babies together. It seemed to be a good idea as the boy was able to move around using his front legs and they both snuggled together while sleeping. My wife and I had a trip planned to the Smoky Mountains. Our son was going to be taking care of the babies while we were gone. Both babies seemed to be eating and doing well.

The night before we were to leave on our trip I went to give the babies their nightly feeding. I noticed that one of them had diarrhea. I could only assume that it was the little boy and wondered if not having any control of his bowel and bladder due to being paralyzed might be the cause.

We cleaned their cat carrier that we were now keeping them in. Put down fresh linen for them to snuggle in. The next morning before we left my wife gave them their morning feeding. There was no more diarrhea at that time, so we were hoping it was just a one time deal.

It was the next day while we were in the Smoky's that we received word from our son that both babies had passed away. We tried so hard to take care of the babies doing what was recommended by the wildlife rehab person I had originally spoken with and doing a ton of research on the internet.

I wonder if we should have kept them separated. Could the little boy have made the little girl sick or was she not going to make it anyway?

I remembered what the rehab person had told me about not letting it get to me if the first one didn't make it. He had said had we done nothing she definitely would have not survived. It's still difficult wondering what we might have done differently.