Facetime helps someone rescue a opossum in NYC

Deborah Altman was walking with a friend in the trendy downtown NYC neighborhood of SoHo when something caught her eye.

It was an opossum huddled in the corner of a building on Grand Street. (Possums and opossums are different animals but the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. It’s confusing.) Seeing the scared helpless animal, Altman, a product manager who lives in Brooklyn, immediately thought of her own dog, who she had rescued as a puppy, and felt compelled to help.

Having rescued a chipmunk last year, Altman knew to contact a wildlife expert and found a list of contacts through the New York State website. When she eventually connected with Michelle Ashkin, a licensed New York State wildlife rehabilitator, she figured her part was over.