A Barrie, Ont. woman got more than she bargained for when she picked up an Uber Eats delivery order at her front doorstep—an unexpected and very feisty guest awaited.
Resident Amber Ballantyne, said her roommate had just ordered from a Shawarma restaurant in the area. When the food arrived, she popped outside to grab the order. Inside the paper bag, nestled among the takeout containers, was a wild opossum.
“First I thought, yay, a new friend but I knew I couldn’t keep him,” Amber said.
Experts at Procyon Wildlife Sanctuary in Beeton say opossums are very clean animals and have a whopping 50 teeth, they have a very short life span of around two years in the wild. Opossums are very important to our environment, our ecosystem and us.
Determined to help the little guy escape safely, Amber said she grabbed a towel and went outside to separate her new fuzzy friend from the food. The opossum, however, was not interested in her efforts.
The Barrie resident said the little critter greeted them with bared teeth, hissing furiously as they tried to free him. Hoping to lure him out, Amber even offered a small bit of cat food, but the opossum was focused on defending his stolen, prized possession, the Oswmow’s meal.
Realizing the situation wasn’t going to resolve itself, Amber’s boyfriend carefully grabbed the bottom of the bag and tipped it over, hoping the opossum would make a run for it.
At one point Amber said, the opossum even played dead, a classic defence mechanism before snapping back into defence mode.
Eventually after countless efforts, the opossum left, but instead of scurrying away, he positioned himself right next to the house entrance, blocking their way inside.
Once safely in the home, Amber sent a photo of the scene to her roommate, who said she ended up receiving a full refund for her meal, minus the opossum, of course.
Worried about the animal’s well-being, Amber checked on him a few times.
She said he lingered near the house for a while, but after about ten minutes or so, she heard the distant calls of other opossums. Sure enough, the little marsupial waddled toward the sounds and disappeared into the night.
While the evening was more exciting than anyone had planned, Amber said she was relieved that the opossum found his way back home. “It was a pretty eventful evening if I do say so myself,” she concluded.
