Opossum Breaks Into Liquor Store, Gets Drunk on Whiskey

Here's another item for the never-ending list of "things that only happen in Florida." The Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge says it cared for a drunk opossum after it snuck into a liquor store.

On Friday, the Fort Walton Beach refuge posted a picture of the drunk-as-a-skunk marsupial in a cardboard box with a tiny bottle of alcohol on Facebook.

"This sly, and currently slurred, opossum snuck its way into a liquor store and discovered some holiday cheer of its own," the post read. "A police officer brought the animal to us for medical treatment and is expected to be released soon."

Michelle Pettis, a wildlife health technician at the refuge, told the Northwest Florida Daily News that the female opossum was brought in by a police officer on Nov. 24. The officer said Cash Moore, a liquor store owner, found the opossum next to a broken bourbon whiskey bottle the morning after Thanksgiving.

"A worker there found the opossum up on a shelf next to a cracked open bottle of liquor with nothing in it," Pettis told the Daily News. "Assuming the opossum drank it all, he brought her to us, and we looked over her and she definitely wasn't fully acting normal."

Pettis said the opossum was salivating more than normal, looked pale and appeared to be disoriented. The staff took care of her until she sobered up.

"We loaded her up with fluids to help flush out any alcohol toxins," Pettis told the paper. "She was good a couple of days later and was released Thursday night."

Moore said the opossum said it was the first time he had ever seen an opossum break into his store.

He also told the Daily News that he thinks the opossum was 21 years old, as far as he knows. (For the record, the Opossum Society of the U.S. says opossums only live between one to two years in the wild.)

Photo credit: Facebook/ Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge