Baby Possum Stuck in Car - Help!

So, here we were getting ready to go to the beach, when my mom opened her car door and there, in the passenger seat, is a little baby possum! I think it's injured because it didn't run away from me when I opened the door to give it some water. Poor little thing is shaking like a leaf! I called the number listed on the Maplewood township website for animal control and reached a dispatcher, who said it would be $95 for someone to come and pick it up. No other information. Does anyone have a better option? I can't afford to pay $95 but I don't want this poor little fella to suffer!

Thanks in advance!

What time did you find it? Was the car hot? Maybe that's all that's wrong (as opposed to injury). I wonder how the heck it got in there...

If you put on garden gloves, you can probably move it to a box or cage and keep an eye on it for awhile, if it is getting some water.

Is it drinking?

I had no idea animal control charged for their help! Sheesh. Aren't they paid out of town taxes??

1. The car was not hot but the sunroof was open, so it probably climbed in that way. It was in the shade. It is drinking water, out of a sippy cup, haha!

This is a really cute and funny story! Maybe try the arboretum in Millburn/Short Hills or Summit? I feel like they would help!

Open driver's side door and gently shoo it away with a broom.

You can also check out the rehabilitarors in New Jersey. Just do a google search. I took baby squirrels there last year, a place near the Pa border on Rt 80, and they had other animals as well.

You could put on a heavy glove or throw a heavy towel over it to pick it up and get it out of the car. It's probably better off on its' own after that than to have a service come take it away.

Personally I would probably just pick him up by the end of his tail but that's just me.

Play dead. Maybe he will leave.

I've been to the place near the PA border with a squirrel..but you will have to drive it out there. There used to be someone in Maplewood, but last I tried calls were never returned and the rumor was that she was no longer accepting animals.

I think it would actually be an Opossum...and they tend to do that. I came across one in my yard...or I should say my cat did. With all his hissing and moaning..the thing didn't move....i tried to scare it off by pounding a stick near it..it ran a few feet and laid back down...a little while later it took off on its own..

seriously to charge people to help a possibly ill or injured animal is ridiculous..what if it was just on the sidewalk?

This might be the place

http://www.wildbabyrescue.org/

Come to think of it, "playing 'possum" is its standard defense mechanism, so it might not be injured at all. If it climbed the car and fell in through the open sunroof, maybe it couldn't figure out how to get back out?

You could try leaving the doors open, leaving it alone, and hoping it will leave once it has a simpler route.

Woot said:
Play dead. Maybe he will leave.

Sent you a PM.

Update?

Woot for the win.

Woot said:
Play dead. Maybe he will leave.

Update! Thanks for your help, everyone. I put on a thick rubber-coated garden glove and picked the little fella up, put him gently into a box, and gave him a dish of water. He hissed at me a little but otherwise didn't put up a fight. Called back the Animal Control place and told them he was now in a box on the front lawn, they said "great, as long as he's not in your house or car there's no charge to pick him up." We left him in the box on the front lawn and went to the beach. Driving back now... Will update again when I get home and let you know if he's still there!

Thanks again for all of your help

FYI, with the animal control arrangement we have now, if you call them for wildlife, expect that the animal will be euthanized. The shelter in Newark is not in the business of rehabilitation. It probably would have been better just to let the little guy go. When we had our own ACO, she did rehabilitate

We are talking about a rodent, right?

A marsupial, actually.

Any update?

The box was gone when we got home. I'm very sad to hear that it will likely be euthanized, @meandtheboys. I wish I had known that before. Maybe it's for the best, though... If the lil fella was really injured, he probably would have been stalked by a cat or something and died horribly.

Yes, if he really was injured, it would not have been pretty. But I'm sad to hear he was probably euthanized.