Wildlife rehabilitator and owner of downtown Fredericksburg gift shop Possum-bilities Karen Brace began challenging people’s myths and misconceptions about opossums not long after she was gifted a box of 11 “joey” opossums in 2016.
Nugget the opossum in his cage at the brick-and-mortar store, Possum-bilities, available for customers to see. (Photo by Noelle Clark.)
“I had started with squirrels, bunnies, and groundhogs before the joey opossums were brought to me,” said Brace. “While rehabbing them, I realized just how misunderstood they were, and I had told myself that if I ever had one that couldn’t go back to the wild, I was going to start doing education with them.”
Brace ended up getting her first non-releasable opossum about a year later, and she founded her company, Awesome Possumz, LLC in April 2019.
“We would go to schools, community groups, home-owner associations, or anywhere that basically wanted to learn about our only native marsupial,” Brace said. “We ended up opening the actual store in March of 2022 and we get people from all over the world in the store, so we are really doing our part of getting people to Fredericksburg.”
Every Thursday through Monday, one of the Awesome Possumz ambassadors can be seen hanging out in the store. There are also other animals in the store, such as Biscuit the pug, tree frogs, Cinnabon the snake, and Big Mama the tarantula.
“I love seeing the transformation as people become informed and enthralled with the animals in the store,” Brace said. “Just because something seems scary doesn’t mean it is. Our main mission is education, and the store became so much more.”
One of the many local artists’ work on display at Possum-bilties. (Photo by Noelle Clark.)
In addition to the animals on display, Brace also has over 50 local artists who display and sell their art out of the store. Some are established artists, while others have never displayed any of their work previously.
“The Possum-bilities store is honestly just so magical and I can’t believe I’ve never been inside until today,” shopper Michelle Musselman said during a recent visit. “I could get lost in here for hours looking at the gorgeous things throughout the store.”
On Feb. 9, Possum-bilities will be holding its third annual Hissing Booth fundraiser from 1-4 p.m. For a cash donation of any size, attendees can have their photo taken with any of the Awesome Possumz ambassadors.
“We do some of the silliest events here at the store and this is just one of the many,” Brace said. “The first year we did this, a friend of mine got one of the cheesy cardboard cut-out kissing booth signs, and we just crossed out the K and replaced it with an H. We use it every year since because it’s so ridiculous and funny.”
The Hissing Booth and Love Bites event will be held in-store, Feb. 9 from 1-4 p.m. (Possum-bilities Facebook photo.)
In addition to the Hissing Booth, Brace has also added a special twist to the event, which she’s calling “Love Bites.” For another donation of any size, you can name a superworm or roach after your ex and feed it to any of the critters in the store.
“It’s going to be complete chaos but it’s going to be so much fun,” she said. “Springtime is baby season for rehabbers, and this is going to be a great way to not only kick off baby season but remind people that Awesome Possumz is a rescue and those donations will go towards it all.”
Brace emphasized that education is truly the key to changing people’s perceptions of opossums, and she’s always looking for new and creative ways to inform people of how important opossums are to the environment.
“They’re scavengers and without our scavengers, the earth would be a completely nasty and diseased place with all the dead things laying around,” Brace said. “I find cuteness in weird things and they’re like little space creatures with rat tails, monkey feet and cat-like behaviors. I’ve always been one to defend the underdog and the underdog here are the opossums.”
