Opossum Hospitalized After Gorging on Chocolate Cake

A family in Omaha, Nebraska made the mistake of leaving an entire tuxedo chocolate mousse cake on their back porch. An opossum found it and that was the end of the cake, and almost the end of the opossum.

Kim Doggett and her son Hayden tried to shoo the bloated beast away but it was too stuffed with chocolate, so it sat there and panted, as one does. They called the local Humane Society, which brought the gluttonous animal to the Nebraska Wildlife Rehab.

“We assume that chocolate would be toxic to opossums and other wildlife, but we don’t know of any published studies confirming that,” the animal rescue’s executive director Laura Stastny told Forbes. They treated the creature with activated charcoal and fluids, then did a full health checkup, including X-rays and bloodwork.

“This Virginia opossum was admitted today after reportedly devouring an ENTIRE Costco chocolate cake,” the rehabbers wrote on Facebook. “With some time in rehab (and a diet reset), this choco-holic should be stabilized enough to return to the wild but until then, she is definitely a little cranky about our strict ‘zero chocolate’ policy!”

As it happened, all that chocolate may have indirectly saved the animal’s life. The blood tests revealed that the opossum was suffering from lead toxicity, so she’s being treated for that as well as the gluttony. She seems to be doing okay.

The attention from Forbes (as well as the Washington Post) turned out to be good for Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, which wasted little time cashing in on the opossum episode. The animal-rescue group has already started selling cake bandit tee shirts to raise funds.

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), also known as the North American opossum, is the northernmost marsupial in the world.

Photo credit: Nebraska Wildlife Rehab