possums

In 2018, The Boronia Veterinary Clinic in Australia announced on Facebook about a very rare and special guest at their clinic- a rescued brushtail possum with an incredible orange-yellow coat, often referred to as "Golden possums".  

 The real-life Pikachu was sadly found lying on the ground by a concerned rescuer when he was just five months old, after falling from her mom's back. After spending a night at Boronia Veterinary Clinic, she was placed with a wildlife carer.

Brushtail possums are usually a grayish color, but little Pikachu has a genetic mutation that means she lacks melanin. 

Turns out, those unusual colors may look beautiful to us but are actually posing a significant danger to the animal in the wild: "One of the issues with unusual colors, particularly if they are pale, is that this is a nocturnal animal and if they are pale, they are obvious to predators like an owl,"  Dr. Kath Handasyde from Melbourne University's School of Biosciences told Business Insider.

But this adorable possum is not the only one in Australia. There are more little pockets of them around Melbourne, but their location is kept secret by the volunteers in order to keep them safe.      

Story via: Business Insider

Instead of caving to the media's portrayal of possums as terrifying rat-like trash burglars, let this collection of adorable possum pictures change your mind. Check out these funny possum pictures. They're more charming than you think. 

This list is positively possum! That's supposed to read as 'p-awesome', if that didn't come across...

Anyways. Possums are strange creatures of the night that have been getting more and more spotlight attention in the past few years. Not to any liking of their own, though. They would prefer to remain in that darkness, watching all, and more importantly, eating garbage. 

Here are 22 garbage-loving possums for us to admire from afar. Trust us, they prefer it this way.