Blind rescue opossum has been surrogate mom to over twenty orphans
I just found a new opossum to obsess over! Meet Mama Odie, a sweet opossum who lives at the Keeper of the Wild Wildlife Rescue and Sanctuary in South Carolina. She came into the rescue in 2024 after losing her eyesight in what was probably a dog attack. She had two tiny babies in her pouch when she arrived, likely having lost the rest of her litter.
Volunteer Samantha MacDougal told The Dodo that Mama Odie was mourning after losing her babies, so she tried connecting her with orphaned opossums that routinely come into the sanctuary’s care. Mama Odie immediately embraced them as her own. “It’s a really beautiful thing to watch,” MacDougal said. “[She’s] such a loving parent for these babies.” Then something remarkable happened:
The day the baby opossum arrived at the rehabilitation center, MacDougal noticed something unusual about the way Mama Odie was acting. She was making clicking noises over and over, which opossums only ever do when they’re looking for their mate or their babies.
MacDougal checked all over Mama Odie’s pen to see what she could possibly be looking for. But she couldn’t find anything. Then, she heard a sound she didn’t expect coming from across the room.
From the other side of the room, the new baby opossum had been calling out to Mama Odie, and Mama Odie was responding. Somehow, she and the baby had discovered each other and were now asking to be together. So MacDougal decided to try putting the baby with Mama Odie.
MacDougal put them together. It was, as she put it, “a match made in heaven.” Mama Odie immediately took in the baby, cleaned him, and cuddled with him alongside her other adopted babies. Since arriving at the rescue, she’s been a surrogate mama to more than twenty orphaned opossums who have been successfully rehabilitated and released into the wild.
Mama Odie is still alive and kicking! The rescue posted recent photos of her from New Year’s Eve 2025, stating that she’s doing well in her old age. She’s fond of her “plush bed,” loves being served “healthy meals,” and still adores being “close to babies as much as possible.” You can watch her clicking at an orphan across the room — and the orphan clicking back.
Awww