Look: Opossum eats entire Costco chocolate cake in Nebraska yard
Feb. 12 (UPI) -- An opossum was treated at a Nebraska animal hospital after wandering into a family's back yard and gorging itself on an entire chocolate mousse cake from Costco.
Kim Doggett said the cake had been placed on a table in her Gretna back yard because she ran out of room in the fridge.
"I always have a house full and we cook a lot and when you run out of room in the fridge you just sit it on the table outside in the winter," Doggett told Forbes.
She said her son took some fresh-made peanut butter balls outside to cool and discovered an opossum was curled up on the outdoor sectional, which was covered in chocolate paw prints.
"The cake had been knocked off the table and was sitting on the floor in front of where she was," Doggett told the Omaha World-Herald. "The cover was off, and it was almost gone."
The opossum was not moving, and appeared to be panting.
"The opossum looked a little distressed," she said. "We thought we better call the Humane Society and get this guy checked out."
Doggett said she couldn't find any information online on whether chocolate is dangerous to opossums, but she knew the treat was toxic to dogs, so she figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
A Nebraska Humane Society animal control officer took the opossum to Nebraska Wildlife Rehab, which posted a photo of the animal to social media along with an intake note reading: "Opossum was brought in due to having eaten an entire Costco chocolate cake."
"Everybody was posting that this was their spirit animal," Doggett said.
Veterinarians treated the opossum with activated charcoal to neutralize any potential toxicity from the chocolate. She was also found to have a high level of lead, likely from eating local insects.
The opossum is now being treated for the lead in her system and will be released in a few weeks, rehab officials said.
"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," the rehab said on social media.
