Finding opossum babies and trying to save them

So we've had an interesting week. While delivering papers we saw a bunch of raccoons running away from something in the road. Upon closer inspection I saw it was a dead opossum. I would have drove around it an kept going but, something wiggled. We got out and saw that she had babies and while most were dead, three were still alive. I'm a sucker for all things baby so I picked them up and brought them home.

They are about five weeks old. Their eyes are still closed and they make a sneezing sound when they cry. I thought I would call animal control when they opened and that would be that....I was wrong. Animal control wouldn't take them. They gave us the number for the game warden, the game warden sent a text with a woman's name and number, the woman was out of town. During all these calls one of the babies passed away. So while trying to reach someone who would take them I started reading on the internet. Well I relised that they were cold and they needed to be warmed up. so we got them snuggled in a blue shirt, laid on a towel, laid on a heating pad. 

That warmed them up. I didn't have pet milk but, my son Dev drinks a lactose free baby milk. So we put some formula on a sponge and the smallest baby drank it. We also had to rub them with a towel to help them go to the bathroom. an hour before the local vet office said they would take them...24 hours after we picked them up out of the road, another baby passed on. So we brought the smallest one, the runt, the little fighter to the vet where one of the technicians was licensed to raise them. 

My eldest son was happy that we saved at least one baby. I wish someone would update the list of names. Half the people on the list no longer take in baby opossums because it takes six months to raise them up to be released back into the wild.