Man arrested after giving mouth-to-mouth to dead possum

Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to save their pets. Tales of pet owners giving CPR to their cats and dogs are fairly common. But how many folks would try to resuscitate a wild animal? Possums are prone to play dead, especially when threatened. Their eyes glaze over, their teeth are bared, and they secrete a rank stench from their glands.

But the possum lying along the Colonel Drake Highway on Thursday was doing none of that, troopers said. It was long-dead certified roadkill. And Donald Wolfe was intent on bringing it back to life.



Trooper Jamie Levier of the Punxsutawney barracks said witnesses saw Wolfe, 55, locking lips with the lifeless marsupial at about 3 p.m. in a remote area about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. After receiving several calls, troopers arrested Wolfe along an isolated stretch of the highway and charged him with public drunkenness. Levier says the Brookville man was "extremely intoxicated" and "did have his mouth in the area of the animal's mouth, I guess."

Another person saw Wolfe kneeling before the deceased animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a séance, Levier said. In a release, state police listed the victim of the incident as "society." Wolfe will face the charges before a district judge in Jefferson County at an unscheduled date.