‘I fell in love.’ North Texas woman finds instant connection to rescuing opossums.

In 2004, Kay Singleton fell in love by accident.

That year she was involved in an accident that broke her back in three places. She also lost her job as a graphic arts teacher during the long recovery, leaving her in search of something new.

“I thought to get into dog rescue, but found a class being offered for wildlife rehabilitation instead. The bunny people approached me first, and through additional training and hands-on experience I learned that bunnies were hard, squirrels bite and raccoons don’t like anyone,” she said, chuckling. “I didn’t like ‘trying’ to rehab them.”

Then, she was handed a cage of baby opossums and there was an instant connection.

“I fell in love. Possum World was born, and after three years of internship I applied for my own permit and became an official rehabilitator for the State of Texas. Opossums rock,” she said.

Possum World, located in Weatherford, takes in orphaned and injured opossums, nurses them back to health or grows them to approximately 2 pounds before releasing them back to the wild. This can involve daily treatment for injuries, tube feeding tiny babies, fixing breakfast and cleaning cages, the inevitable laundry and dishes associated with animal care, as well as maintaining cage equipment (lights and heat) and the cages themselves.

Singleton maintains a baby room with 11 cages for neonatals (under 30 grams) to 250 grams, along with two outside pre-release cages for possums weighing 250 to 800 grams.

‘Misunderstood mammal’

In spirit, Possum World opened in 2005 when Singleton started training on a screened porch triage room attached to the side of her house. She worked with Crosstimbers Wildlife and National Bobcat Rescue as a sub-permittee. Her Texas Parks and Wildlife Department permit was issued in 2008 when she became a fully licensed rehabber.

“She has truly earned my respect through the past 12-plus years as she has focused on, unquestionably, the most misunderstood mammal in the United States, the opossum,” Cross Timbers Director Valeri Marler said. “She has become one of the finest in the field as she has repaired and brought back to health thousands of these most important animals to our environment. Her passion and dedication knows no bounds.”

Singleton, who works alone with no volunteer help, rescues between 70 to 120 baby possums a month in the spring. That amount tapers off to about 30 or so in June and July, picks up again in August and September before tapering off as October rolls around. From February to July this year she took in almost 600.

Singleton said there is a 97% survival rate for babies 30 grams or higher in weight and about a 60% survival rate for animals hit by a car or shot/hit with a weapon or poisoned. Animals who die of natural causes are saved and frozen for nearby raptor centers.

Singleton works with animal control in nine counties, along with Humane Societies, veterinarians, pest controls and pet stores.

“I’m listed on Google and Animal Help Now and a huge number of wonderful people who care about animals in trouble and go through many hoops to connect with rehabilitators in their area,” she said. “Many drive miles and spend hours looking for care. Hero people.”

Once ready, the possums must be released to the wild according to her permit. If it appears that they are not releaseable for some reason, they must be euthanized or a place must be found where they can live out their lives as an educational animal.

“These requirements are very strict. However, in the past I’ve been able to work with the Fort Worth Zoo, the Fort Worth Nature Center and River Legacy in Arlington,” she said.

Love of nature, animals

Singleton is on track to rehabilitate more than 1,000 opossums this year. Last year she rehabbed 780.

“I have trained, at some time or another, almost all possum rehabbers in the North Texas area,” she said.

“Opossums are sadly misunderstood. They are a truly gentle species,” Marler said. “To choose to enter a field and focus on a species that is not at the top of the ‘cute list’ is admirable.”

Singleton said the road to rehab is sometimes sad and disheartening, but that’s when she works her hardest to come to the rescue. She recalled a time when she spent five hours picking BBs out of a possum mother who was just hungry and wandered into the wrong place.

“They would have killed her had they not seen the babies. She was out in the daytime and they thought she was rabid,” Singleton said. “I don’t even kill spiders anymore because I have learned that everything has a purpose for being on this earth, whether I realize it or not.

“Nature is a circle and all things are connected to all other things in God’s plan. I would hope that soon some will come to realize, as I have, that there won’t be an earth that I grew up with for my grandson if we don’t make changes and modifications now. Please, protect and defend wildlife, all life, as if it were your own.”