An animal worker has gone viral with her #sendhelp video after sharing the shocking discovery she made in one of her rescue cat’s cages.
Alicia Dreyer works in a dog day care and kennels, but when three senior cats came into their care, they couldn’t refuse, and are now helping the trio get back to full health.
But when Dreyer, who posts to TikTok on her account @sovereign.warrior.being, went to check on the cats one morning, she got a surprise. A baby opossum had somehow found its way into the crate.
In a video shared on June 12, which has been viewed over 3.8 million times, she opened the cage door and exclaimed: “Look who’s here,” as the tiny marsupial stared up at her, with neither the opossum nor the cat paying much attention to each other.
Asking the opossum how it got in there, Dreyer said it “makes no sense to me,” as the cage was on the second level with no way in or out of the fenced-in shed and patio.
Her rescue instincts immediately kicked in, however, as Dreyer spoke to the baby opossum in a gentle voice and promised “we’re going to get you out.”
@sovereign.warrior.being
She revealed in a later video update that the female baby opossum, who they have named Daisy, was still with them, being treated with love in their kennels, and that they planned to set her free after rehabilitation.
Agreeing with one commenter that they now had a “rescue possum,” she added: “I cannot believe she was in there with three cats and they were just chilling with her.”
“I have so many questions. How did you get in there and how did you survive? I guess we can call it the possum distribution system.”
While some shorten the name to possums, opposums and possums are two different animals: opossums are found across North America, while possums are native to Australia.
In the U.S., opossums are not usually seen as cute, cuddly creatures, but the Humane Society insists they should not be written off as pests, as they play an important role in the ecosystem, eating insects and thousands of ticks per season.
They can often be seen traveling at night, and babies instinctively cling to their mothers’ backs, leading to some theories at how the baby opossum ended up in the crate with the senior cat.
TikTok users commented on the original video, jokily hashtagged “send help” in their droves, with over 4,500 people sharing their thoughts.
Some suggested the opossum could have “latched on” to one of the cats, thinking it was its mother, and that the cat “accepted” it as its baby.
“I’ve seen that they just instinctively grab on to whatever they can if they lose mom,” another agreed.
Others laughed at the way the cats seemingly had no interest in hunting the baby, one joking: “Oh him? That’s just Jerry. He’s fine, he’s been here all night.”
And as one person put it: “It’s her emotional support baby possum.”
