January 4th 2001 - Its a Boy!
I recieved a call this morning from a lady who has found what sounds like a baby Brushtail Possum. She has agreed to bring it to my place.
The little bundle of joy has arrived, he is a Brushtail Possum. Tipping the scales at 96 grams, he has just a showing of fur on his back (none on his underside), his eyes have not opened yet. The poor soul is freezing cold, slightly dehydrated, and has a nasty gash on his tail that goes to the bone.
My first priority is to warm him up, apply antibiotic ointment then we start our first feed. Which I might add he is not too keen on! Two hours and lots of tears later (from him and me) he managed to drink 5 mls of specially prepared formula. Well done, I am so proud of my little man! After a lot of thought and consideration (can't take these things lightly you know) my little possum has been christened 'Barnarby'.
Barnarby will stay with me until he is old enough to be released into the wild. For now he will live down my shirt in order to maintain his body temperature at the right level. Unfurred marsupials are not able to regulate their temperature.



January 7th 2001 - Sad and upset.
Well we almost have the drinking thing happening now, even if it is aking me 1 hour per feed. Barnaby is just so slow, but we get there in the end.
His tail is swollen were it is cut - more than likely the victim of a cat attack I'd say - but it appears to be healing well.
One eye is starting to open and he is taking tentative peeps at the world. I wonder what he thinks of his new Mum? He is still unsettled though and spends a lot of time crying, nothing I do seems to console him. He will settle down eventually, it must be hard losing your Mum.


January 9th 2001 - Big gains.
I weighed Barnaby this morning, he has gained 30 grams - thats a 3rd of his arriving weight. The two hour feeds (day and night) are starting to pay off even if they do get me down a bit. Both of his eye's are open now too and he is eager to see the sights!
The fur on his back is starting to darken and grow it won't be long before he starts to grow fur on his belly.
Barnarby appears a mite happier now, spending less time crying and more drinking.


January 11th 2001 - Doing well
Barnarby is coming ahead in leaps and bounds, this morning when I weighed him I thought that I must have had a problem with my scales! He now weighs a whopping 164 grams! He is drinking well, and appears to have accepted me as 'Mum'. After he has finished his bottle he likes to climb around on my lap and investigate his 'world'.


January 21st 2001
I was finally able to put Barnarby on 4 hour feeds! We weaned down to 3hourly then onto four without any major problems or upsets. Which was good because for the last week I have also had a small ringtail possum that I have been feeding two hourly.
Barnarby is not too keen on this latest addition to the family, and gets quite upset if he happens to encounter her while on his daily excursion around my lap!

Febuary 5th 2001 - what a sook!
Barnaby has come ahead in leaps and bounds, I keep meaning to take another photo of him...maybe next week? He loves his bottles, and his Mum. But he would have to be the worlds sookiest possum, still venturing no further than my lap still on his daily excursion. The one occasion he did get 'brave' he managed to get 20 cms away before panic set in! Crying and shaking he made the 'mad dash' back to the saftey of his pouch. Oh Barnarby, whatever will I do with you?