While Australia's Taronga Wildlife Hospital takes in and treats well over 1,000 injured and orphaned native animals each year, it's the newest pair of tiny little possums that has us smitten.
Bettina the Brushtail Possum came to Taronga in September after being found alone and dehydrated in Mosman, according to Taronga's Facebook page. After emergency first aid, she has recovered beautiful and is now in the capable hands of her surrogate mom, Felicity Evans, who carries the 4-month-old possum around in a homemade pouch and wakes in the night to feed her. Bettina was missing her birth mother so much that Evans gave her a little stuffed kangaroo that she clings to for comfort.
"At this age she would naturally still be with her mother, so the soft toy gives her something to snuggle for comfort. It's not as fluffy and woolly as an adult Brushtail Possum, but she clings to it using her claws and teeth as she would do with mum in the wild," added Evans.
"She's feeding really well and is quite a vocal little thing," said Evans. "She'll sit in the spare room next to me and all out when she's ready to feed."
But Bettina has some stiff competition in the cute category, as Evans is also helping out with the overnight portion of hand-raising a little female Ringtail Possum found abandoned in a car park in Balmoral. At just five months old, the little girl still needed her mother, and Evans gladly stepped in.
Almost tripling her weight since arriving at Taronga, the little Ringtail joey is thriving.
"We're starting to introduce her to solid foods like carrot and sweet potato, as well as natural browse and native flowers," said Evans. "She particularly loves bottlebrush and the soft tips of eucalyptus."
"These two joeys wouldn't be alive today if someone hadn't noticed them and brought them to the wildlife hospital," Evans continued.
Both of these cuties will be transferred to a specialized wildlife foster once ready with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. Mother Nature is a beautiful thing, and these tiny adorable possums deserve a chance to enjoy the spoils that nature brings them.
