Sweet Pea is asleep. But what nearly 4-year-old isn’t napping in the afternoon? Compounding the sleepiness is the fact that Sweet Pea is a geriatric Virginia opossum.
“They live three or four years in captivity and she’s three years and nine months,” says Karen Brace, the licensed wildlife rehabilitator who rescued the nubby-tailed mammal in 2020.
In fact, Virginia opossums are nocturnal, so Sweet Pea and her fellow rescues likely won’t start perking up until 9 or 10 p.m., Brace says. Despite that, customers at Brace’s Fredericksburg store, Possum-bilities, are happy to pet the animals and pose with them at any time of day.
It just means that the possum on duty might catch some z’s through events like Possum Yoga on March 23 and the “Bring the Spring” Drag Show, on April 13. A percentage of ticket sales for those events goes to the rescue. “As much as possum-able,” Brace jokes.
Those events are just part of what makes the marsupial-focused community hub unique in Virginia, and possibly on the planet. That’s because Brace believes that the store might be the only place to both shop for wildlife- and nature-related gifts and meet an opossum at the same time. There’s always one on duty at the store, along with friends of a variety of species. The animals also took part in 57 educational programs last year, making new pals everywhere from schools to assisted living facilities.
Business Model Featuring Possums
We called Karen Brace to learn more about her one-of-a-kind business model.
How did Possum-bilities come to be?
Brace: I actually started Awesome Possumz in April 2019. That’s when my first non-releasable [possum, Stuart] and I started doing education. We would sell things like plushies and earrings at events. It was fun to see people laugh at all the silly, crazy possum merch.
The idea for a store started tinkling around in my brain. In November 2021, I fell into the opportunity to get a lease downtown, and one thing led to another: An entire store themed around possums! [The store opened in March 2022.]
Who can customers expect to meet at the store?
Brace: Besides the possums, there’s Cinnabun the snake, she’s a Cinnamon Champagne Ball python morph. There’s Kaida, the bearded dragon. We have Tortellini the tortoise and Darwin the tortoise, Tiny the tegu. Biscuit the pug is here in her dress as we speak. Then I got a tarantula, Big Mama, for Christmas. Those are just my animals. There’s a pigeon that comes in and a couple of baby emus recently stopped by. We have a cat who hangs out here sometimes. You never know.
How do people react to the store?
Brace: They’re a little surprised that there’s an almost 5,500-square-foot building dedicated to possums!
What are your favorite products sold at the store?
Brace: The ones that I started selling right away are all my funny socks. We’ve got a very nice collection of very funny socks. We have beautiful earrings made from recycled cereal boxes. Then the plushies. They’ve consistently been the top seller from the beginning. A lot of people are obsessed with them, which is pretty awesome. I am, too. They’re not your usual plushies. Right now, I’m looking at a stag beetle and a peacock mantis shrimp.
What else do you want potential customers to know about possums?
Brace: Possums are not pets. People need to know it is illegal in the state of Virginia to have any native wild animal as a pet. Raccoons also. The possums are friendly, but they are not pets. I have to have extra state and federal licensing to be able to keep them. They’re amazing animals that are great for the environment.
Possum-bilities, 211 William St., Second Floor, Fredericksburg
Feature image courtesy of Possum-bilities/Facebook
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