We recently had a family here volunteering with us: Jamie and her 2 children, Maya and Gabe. Volunteering as a family is a wonderful experience. And the children in Costa Rica love to meet kids from around the world.

While the Malik’s were here, Gabe discovered a tiny, baby animal in the driveway of our volunteer center. None of us really had any idea what it was. The poor thing looked like it had fallen out of the trees and was in pretty bad shape. Maya was very concerned about this and decided to stay behind to care for the animal. We were all pretty convinced this fuzzy little thing was a baby kinkajou.

Maya kept watch and even fed the animal some milk. It finally started coming to life and then began playing with Maya. It was really cute! The next day I took our new buddy to the Sloth Rescue Center, Aviarios del Caribe. Everyone got all excited, started taking pictures and looking up info in books.

In the end, it ended up being a opossum. Who would have thought? They told me that opossums make great pets. Maybe so. But I decided to leave our new friend in their capable hands. You never know what you’re going to run into here!

Many thanks to the Mailk family, especially Maya and Gabe for finding and caring for the opossum!