The Orca class adopted a wildlife ambassador from the wildlife shelter. These are injured animals that cannot be returned to the wild. They are used as teaching assistants to help children and adults learn about wild animals. We adopted an opossum named Luna. We were invited to come and visit the shelter. The first animal we met was a red tailed hawk, a favorite of many of the children.

We also saw a peregrine falcon.

Then we met an owl. The handler of these birds wears a leather glove on her arm so that the bird's talons don't hurt her.

The birds have a leather bracelet around their ankle with a leash so that they cannot fly away (for those that can still fly). This is called a jess.

We learned that the owls eyes are big. It would be the same as if our eyes were the size of our fists.

Then we met a turkey vulture.

And, finally, here comes Luna! She was injured when an animal of dog mauled her. Part of her tail is missing, and she is blind in one eye. She is getting to be an old opossum, as she is three years old. Did you know that opossums have the most teeth of any animal in the United States?

Then we went inside to learn how to care for baby opossums. First we put on our gloves, because you never handle wild animals without putting on gloves.

You have to weigh the babies each day to make sure they are getting enough to eat and gaining weight.

We pretended to feed the toy opossums with a syringe. It was hard to do with the big gloves on.

We learned how to "whiz" the babies the same way the mama would do with her tongue. We rubbed the baby opossums bottoms with a damp cotton ball to make them go pee and poop. A mama opossum licks her babies with her tongue.

Here is the pile of things we donated to the shelter: toilet paper, cotton balls, blankets, sheets and towles, and more.

The people from the wildlife shelter came to visit our class and see how we play wildlife shelter. Here are some injured animals in cages with beds.

This is the hospital, and these helpers are x-raying the injured animals. They are holding up their x-rays.

This ittle boy is whizzing a baby opossum. We made pretend baby opossums from rolled up sox and gave them a tail.

This boy is weighing the baby.

Here is a hawk in the mews, which is what they call the places they keep the birds of prey, or raptors, at the shelter. This hawk is standing on her perch.

Then they brought out Luna.

It was fun to see her up close. You can see her pink eye lids because of her injured eyes.

Luna's tail is fat because of it's injury. Most opossum tails are not so big around. They brought Luna's favorite treat to eat: cashews!