This week, Monica, a hospital administrator in Florida, arrived at work to find a puzzling sight on the sidewalk just outside the hospital. There, pacing in tight, continuous circles, was a distressed opossum — caught in a loop he couldn’t seem to escape.
Concerned for the animal’s well-being, Monica quickly reached out to Elizabeth Azzarello, a dedicated wildlife rescuer from Little Bit Wildlife Rescue. Despite being over an hour away, Azzarello jumped into action, knowing that time was of the essence.
By the time Azzarello arrived, Monica and a security officer had taken steps to protect the opossum. Monica had carefully coaxed him into a box for safety, while the security guard placed cones around the area to keep passersby from disturbing him.
“When I got there, I was worried he might have suffered a brain injury from some sort of accident,” Azzarello recounted. “But there was no sign of trauma. He hadn’t been hit or injured at all.”
Azzarello began piecing together another explanation. Heavy rain had soaked the area the night before, leading her to suspect a different cause for the opossum’s disoriented behavior.
“When water gets into their ears, opossums can develop an ear infection, which can throw off their balance, like vertigo,” Azzarello explained.
She took the little guy home, administered antibiotics, and monitored him closely. Sure enough, within days, he began to improve. His circling slowed, and he started eating heartily — a sure sign he was on the mend.
“He’s doing great,” Azzarello shared. “He’s up and eating, which is always a good sign.”
Azzarello is hopeful that within a few weeks, the infection will fully clear, allowing him to return to the wild. But this opossum has already won a permanent place in her heart.
“I’ve been doing this for years,” Azzarello said with a smile, “and he’s the cutest opossum I’ve ever seen.”
Thanks to the quick thinking of Monica and the dedicated care of Azzarello, this little opossum is well on his way to a full recovery — and a second chance at life in the wild.
