If you’ve ever wanted to subsidize a sneaky stowaway’s blended drink habit, you’re in luck. The Alaska Zoo is seeking symbolic adoptive parents for Meatball, a juvenile opossum found and captured in a Juneau machine shop near the airport late last month.
“We’ve made him these smoothies he really likes out of his vegetables,” said Sam Levin, curator at the Alaska Zoo. “He’s pretty much eating anything we give him right now.”
His bottomless appetite inspired zookeepers to name him Meatball. Levin said he’s currently on the lighter side with some parasites he’s overcoming, so the zoo is hoping his appearance will match his namesake soon.
“We kind of threw a couple names around, and Meatball seemed like it fit him, what we were seeing of his personality so far,” Levin said. “We are hoping to put some weight on him and some muscle.”
Tim Travis, who originally discovered the opossum at Juneau’s N C Machinery and aided in his capture, was happy to hear Meatball had found a home. Travis and his coworkers originally dubbed him Chester.
“The name Chester just popped up in my co-worker Chad’s head, and we all agreed it seemed like a fitting name for a grungy little lost opossum,” he explained in a message. “I have been following the story with the zoo and we are glad they were able to take him in but were disappointed to hear about the name change.”
Levin said the zoo named Meatball before seeing Travis’s post with the original name.
According to Levin, Meatball likely followed in the footsteps of Grubby, a legendary opossum who hitchhiked to Homer in a shipping container. After evading capture for a month and inspiring an online #FreeGrubby movement, she was finally taken into custody by the Homer Police Department in 2023–but not without a fight. She bit an officer on the hand during the course of her “arrest.”
“Officer Crowder, without any fear or hesitation, attempted to apprehend the suspect, who then let out a little hiss and growl and bit our officer in the hand,” a 2023 Facebook post from the Homer Police Department read. “After some very effective de-escalation, the suspect was contained and taken into custody without further incident. It was transported to the Homer Jail via a very comfortable Rubbermaid trash can.”
Like Meatball, she found a home at the zoo, where her notoriety continued. Last year, she passed away due to natural complications of age. Grubby was estimated to be 3.5 years old at the time of her death, much longer than opossums usually survive in the wild.
“The way that she had gotten here was by stowaway and she’s an invasive species, and so she didn’t have a lot of options here in Alaska, and it just happened that it happened again in Juneau,” Levin said. “It was brought to animal control, they picked him up and asked if we would like another one. They knew that we had lost Grubby and we liked her very much and she was very popular at the zoo, so we had the space and the timing was fortuitous.”
In Meatball’s case, the opossum arrest was a little smoother. Animal control and Travis’s coworkers wrangled him into a cat trap with cardboard flaps and a broom, and no injuries were reported.
“While Juneau Animal Rescue’s Animal Control team typically responds to domestic animals, this unusual situation called for extra coordination and we were glad to assist,” a newsletter from Juneau Animal Rescue read.
Meatball was shipped north to Anchorage on Alaska Air Cargo and Levin picked him up from the airport. She said that it’s possible he came from Washington state where they’re also considered invasive, but it’s hard to say for sure.
“They’re actually really good at spreading. Since they’re really good at adapting to where people live, they tend to just follow the people,” she said. “Even though we don’t see that a lot in Alaska, you can certainly apply those same principles to things like coyotes. They’re also really good at following where people go and thriving in areas where people are. So, it’s the same lesson, and you can see what they’ve done in the ecosystem, and how important it is to kind of just be good stewards of the land and watch for things like invasive species.”
While he definitely has some iconic shoes to fill, Meatball’s origin story is a little different than his spunkier predecessor.
“Grubby I think was maybe a little bit older than he was and she had been on the lam for a while, so she was very wary of humans,” Levin said. “She was, unfortunately, doing fine out in the wild in Homer, whereas Meatball, I think, is a little hungrier. He wasn’t really thriving the way she was. But he went through, I think, a lot less stress.”
That puts him in a better spot to help with the zoo’s goal of educating the public about invasive species while being in a safe haven for animals that find themselves where they’re not supposed to be. He’s still in quarantine recovering from parasites and some superficial injuries, but is on display and already a popular critter.
People can help with the zoo’s goal by charitably adopting Meatball. Different donation levels fund equipment and food for the adopted animal, like the new food processor required for Meatball’s specialized diet, and correspond to benefits like photos, plush toys, stickers, or even private tours. Details about adoption can be found on the Alaska Zoo’s website.
“We hear all sides of the spectrum of people with opossums,” Levin said. “They either love them or hate them. We’re hoping to turn some more haters into lovers.”
This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.
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