Mama Odie, a rescued opossum, has always had a big heart. When she was first rescued, she was suffering from severe injuries, likely as the result of a dog attack. Her condition was so severe that she ended up losing her eyesight.

When her rescuers found her, they discovered that she had two babies still alive in her pouch. Normally, opossums can have up to 11 babies, so since Mama Odie had only two, it’s likely something happened to the rest of her litter.

What many people may not know is that opossums actually grieve the loss of their babies. When they don’t have enough babies to raise, they start feeling depressed and their will to live diminishes.

Samantha MacDougal, volunteer at Keeper of the Wild Wildlife Rescue and Sanctuary, came up with a brilliant idea to help Mama Odie as she dealt with the loss of her babies. She decided to take the orphaned baby opossums at Keeper of the Wild and place them in Mama Odie’s care. Mama Odie immediately embraced them as if they were her own.

“It’s a really beautiful thing to watch,” MacDougal told The Dodo. “[She’s] such a loving parent for these babies.”

Mama Odie already had several babies in her care when a new orphan opossum arrived at Keeper of the Wild. His rescuers had found the baby opossum all by himself, which meant he got separated from his family. Even though the baby opossum didn’t have any major health problems, he still wouldn’t have been able to survive on his own.

The day the baby opossum arrived at the rehabilitation center, MacDougal noticed something unusual about the way Mama Odie was acting. She was making clicking noises over and over, which opossums only ever do when they’re looking for their mate or their babies.

MacDougal checked all over Mama Odie’s pen to see what she could possibly be looking for. But she couldn’t find anything. Then, she heard a sound she didn’t expect coming from across the room.

From the other side of the room, the new baby opossum had been calling out to Mama Odie, and Mama Odie was responding. Somehow, she and the baby had discovered each other and were now asking to be together. So MacDougal decided to try putting the baby with Mama Odie.

“I was like, ‘Let’s see if this is going to be a match made in heaven,’” MacDougal said.