A second chance for life

Carrie Lowell can be seen on occasion looking at deceased possums on the side of the road. She keeps a pair of gloves among other tools available in her automobile for those kinds of occasions.

It's not the deceased animal Lowell is interested in; she is looking inside the pouch of the possum for pinky possums also known as baby possums. She rescues the babies and takes them to Fox Valley Wildlife Center for care.

"When you find the babies it's rewarding," said Lowell. "Just because a mother possum is dead does not mean the babies aren't still alive."

Once rescued Carrie brings the pinky possums to the Fox Valley Wildlife Center in Elburn. They are state certified wildlife rehabilitators that care for animals so they can be re-released into the wild.

Lowell refers to herself as "the crazy lady poking at dead animals on the side of the road," when she thinks of what other people might think when she is rescuing possum pinkies.

"I just see a dead animal on the road; I don't know if it's a mother carrying young at first."

Lowell offered some tips in rescuing pinky possums: "Never try to feed baby possums. They are wild animals. Just keep it warm and get it to a wildlife shelter."

The reason Lowell has a soft spot for possums is because "they are misunderstood animals. Most people think they are aggressive, but they are gentle animals with poor eyesight."

"[Possum's] tails look like a rat, but they are not even closely related. Possums are marsupials which makes them more like kangaroos. Most people think their teeth look mean but the only way you will see them is if you corner one. This is easy to do because they're slow."

Lowell's work with animals doesn't stop with possums. She works with the House Rabbit Society. She will foster rabbits until a permanent home is found. Most of the rabbits the organization rescues are from kill shelters.

Some of the work the society does is rabbit ownership education, which is mainly done over the phone; an example is litter box training. Special rehabbing when a rabbit has been abused, that consists of the rabbit learning to trust humans again. "Some rabbits are abused in really bad ways, such as having their ears cut off," said Lowell.