Opossum breaks into liquor store and gets drunk as a skunk ... on bourbon

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An opossum that apparently drank bourbon after breaking into a Florida liquor store sobered up at a wildlife rescue center and was released unharmed.

Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge officials say the opossum was brought in by a Fort Walton Beach, Florida, police officer on Nov. 24. A liquor store employee found the animal next to a broken and empty bottle of bourbon.

"A worker there found the opossum up on a shelf next to a cracked open bottle of liquor with nothing in it," said Michelle Pettis, a technician at the refuge. "She definitely wasn't fully acting normal."

Pettis told the Northwest Florida Daily News the female opossum appeared disoriented, was excessively salivating and was pale. The staff pumped the marsupial full of fluids and cared for her as she sobered up.

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"We loaded her up with fluids to help flush out any alcohol toxins," Pettis said. "She was good a couple of days later."

Pettis says the opossum did not appear to have a hangover.

The store owner, Cash Moore, says he never had an opossum break in before.

"She came in from the outside and was up in the rafters, and when she came through she knocked a bottle of liquor off the shelf," Moore said. "When she got down on the floor she drank the whole damn bottle."

"But it just goes to show that even the animals are impressed with Cash's," he said.

Employees at Cash's Liquors contacted Saturday night told Courier Journal they did not know what brand of bourbon the opossum drank but that it was "about a $30 bottle" the critter knocked off the top shelf.

The animal was released on Thursday.

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Courier Journal sports director Chris White contributed to this report. Information from: Northwest Florida Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Fla.), http://www.nwfdailynews.com