Takes a village to save an opossum

After an adult male opposum was shot in the head in Van Nuys on Saturday, it required the neighborhood kids, an Animal Services officer, Valley Wildlife Care in Woodland Hills and Double R Veterinary Center in Calabasas to save him. But save him they did. From the Daily News:

It took two surgeons 3 1/2 hours to plug a 9 mm bullet hole through his head.

It may take another operation - or a total $9,000 worth of surgery - and months of intensive care to save him.

The victim: a Virginia opossum gunned down Saturday in Van Nuys.

"He's really a lucky guy," said Brenda Varvarigos, founder of Valley Wildlife Care in Woodland Hills, who is nursing the wounded critter. "I have a soft spot for opossums because people hate them, misunderstand them.

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"Poor opossum," [veterinarian Attila} Molnar said. "He was shot in the head by somebody, the bullet went through the frontal sinus in front of the brain, made a clean hole and broke the zygomatic arch, or jawbone, then came down and broke his mandible, or lower jaw and the bullet ricocheted and went through his neck."

Previously on LA Observed:
Yes, another post about opossum poetry
Praising L.A's marsupial immigrants

Photo: Andy Holzman / Daily News