Angel intervention and my Brushtail Possum

Hi Everybody!

I havn’t written in a while so I thought this might be a good time to tell you the story of the Brushtail Possum, Petal, I raised last year. I’ve been meaning to write a blog about him for ages.

There were so many synchronicities to do with him coming to me that I just can’t imagine it was a coincidence. I actually believe he was meant to come into my life and I’m so happy that he did. To begin with, when he came to me I hadn’t done any wildlife rehab in over a year. I was no longer working at a wildlife clinic and I had given up at-home care. A friend of mine had found him, though, on her way home from the big Canberra flower festival, Floriade. She had spotted Petal’s dead mum on the road and stopped to check if she had a joey in the pouch. Sure enough, she did.

She and I had not spoken to each other in a long time because we had had a falling out earlier that year. The local rangers and wildlife groups were no luck in helping her, though, and so (as a last resort) she called me. I was happy to hear from her and drove right over to see what I could do. She didn’t know at the time that it was also my birthday (another synchronicity). The joey was small, furless, and about 180 grams.

Luckily a joey of this size is not so small that it can’t be rehabilitated but it is very fragile. A joey of this size is not yet able to regulate its body temperature on its own and the slightest stress can cause it to perish. I was dealing with a lot of heavy emotional issues at the time (grief over a failed relationship) as well as a stressful job and didn’t feel I was up to the challenge of taking on such a young joey. Not one of the possum carers I tried to get onto that night, though, picked up the phone when I rang or called me back (another synchronicity – this never happens, my wildlife friends are really reliable).

When I got home from my friend’s house that night I organised a little hand-knitted pouch to put Petal into and fell asleep with my hand in the pouch with Petal curled up in my palm. As I was sleeping I had a dream where Doreen Virtue, the famous expert on angels (who I just got to see in person the other day! picture below!) was pulling angel cards from behind a podium.

She said to me “archangel Ariel is helping you with this.” I always know when a dream is significant because the colours are more vibrant, there is a clear message, and I wake up immediately after. This was one of those dreams. I remember getting up and immediately googling “archangel Ariel” because I had never heard of this angel before. To my shock and amazement I learned that this is an angel believed to be the guardian of the animal kingdom. What?! Wow!!

At this point I knew that this little possum was meant to be with me.

He was in my care for about six months before I released him into a possum box in the back yard. My relationship with my friend is now healed (and she ended up making a terrific possum sitter!) and I have also healed from the relationship I was grieving over when he first came in. I believe he was sent to me to heal my heart

The release was pretty a pretty terrifying experience. So many animals do not survive even a week past their release, especially possums, and especially especially male possums! Possums are just so territorial and the local dominant male in whatever area you release a possum into will think nothing of attacking any new competition. Sure enough several other possums came by to check out Petal in the hours and days after his release. I spent many sleepless nights outside trying to see what was going on. My back yard turned into one big possum soap opera after a while! There was one big, fat, old lady possum, though, that seemed to come around most nights (to steal the kiwis I would bring out for him).

One night I noticed that she had a baby with her that was about the same size as Petal. Oh I don’t think I ever mentioned that I named my possum ‘Petal’ because he came from a flower festival – I probably would have picked a more manly sounding name if I hadn’t mistaken his balls for a pouch at first and was thinking for two days that he was a girl! Haha. Anyway, though, when I noticed that “old fatty” as I would call her had a baby about the same age as Petal I asked her if she would please look after him for me and not beat him up. As I was asking her this she crept closer and closer to me and in the end we couldn’t have been more than six inches apart. It was amazing. I told her that he was my baby and that I love him and that it would really mean a lot to me if she would look after him for me. I got chills all through my body as I asked her this and then off she went.

I then didn’t see Petal for about a month. I assumed the worse.

But then one day about six weeks later I heard a noise outside and instinctively knew it was him. I raced out into the yard and there he was – and there she was and there the other baby was. She had accepted my request and taken him under her wing! Possums are not known as being overly social animals so this was something truly amazing.

Update! Petal is still around, recent pictures of him (and his new family) here.

Tagged as: angel, animal, archangel, arial, ariel, brushtail, carly, doreen virtue, faeries, faery, fairies, fairy, guardian, guide, healed, healing, heart, helper, intuitive, mammal, petal, possum, raphael, rehab, rehabilitation, wildlife, wilson