When we think about alarming wildlife encounters, we often picture bears or snakes off in the woods somewhere frightening hikers and campers. Unfortunately, the reality is that the human population has sprawled out over a larger area than at any other time in history — and animals that have nowhere else to go end up staying in our neighborhoods.
One Omaha, Nebraska, real estate agent discovered the truth of that when she found an unexpected visitor on her back patio.
What's happening?
In February, Kim Doggett went out to her back patio and found an opossum there on her outdoor couch, CNN reported — straining her belief at first when her son told her about it.
"I really thought he was messing with me, so I went over and I turned the light on," Doggett said. "I opened the door, and I was like, 'Oh my.'"
The animal had been lured by a tuxedo chocolate mousse cake from Costco, which she ate whole before leaving a mess of chocolate footprints on Doggett's new beige couch. Doggett found her in distress and panting.
"We've all been there, girl," one commenter said on a social media post about the "Cake Bandit," per CNN.
"I have also begun to (breathe) heavily after eating an entire cake by myself. Maybe not Costco but it definitely has happened more than once. I get it gurl. I get it," another user said.
So Doggett called the American Humane Society, which retrieved the opossum and passed her to Nebraska Wildlife Rehab for a checkup. Her exam revealed that in addition to the chocolate, she'd consumed something else dangerous: lead poisoning.
"It appears that she was lucky to have been caught red-handed, because it allowed her to come to our hospital and get diagnosed with what can become a fatal condition in wildlife," Laura Stastny, Nebraska Wildlife Rehab's executive director, said in an email to CNN.
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Why is this opossum important?
It's not every day you come home to a Cake Bandit on your porch. However, wild animals live in close proximity to humans, making these interactions inevitable. Animals that would normally avoid human contact are lured in by food — whether it's in incorrectly secured trash cans or, as in this case, simply left out in the open. They can even get used to eating this way.
This can lead to property damage and, in some cases, injuries as people and animals engage in dangerous contact.
It's also a sad reminder of how much damage humanity has done to the environment. If animals had safe, undisturbed homes and plentiful food in their natural environments, they'd be less likely to approach big, unpredictable humans in search of food.
What can I do to prevent negative wildlife encounters?
Our national parks offer great tips for avoiding dangerous encounters, like staying at least 75 feet away from wildlife (and twice as far from larger animals).
One piece of wisdom from the parks: always secure food and trash. Any garbage outside should be in enclosed bins with lids, preferably ones that latch. Unattended food should stay in the house.
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