Ledyard — Sheldon is a fussy eater, but like the “Big Bang Theory” character he’s named after, the tiny marsupial living with six brothers and sisters in a heated container in Lori Edwards’ bathroom is lovable and irritating at the same time.

“He is such a pokey eater, and when I’m feeding him at 3 a.m., I just want to get back to bed,” Edwards, a wildlife rehabilitator at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in Mystic, said Tuesday. “I have to feed them every three hours, and it takes about 30 to 45 minutes.”

In addition to holding a state license to care for wildlife, Edwards is a preschool teacher at the nature center whose first opossum, Mr. Wiggles, became something of a local celebrity when she tended to him two years ago.

When Mr. Wiggles died last fall, Edwards lost a furry companion that would let her carry him on her shoulder.

Unsuited to be released into the wild, Mr. Wiggles lived at her home but often visited her preschool students or came to the nature center for special programs.

Today, Edwards' home is once again a nursery for orphaned opossums — five juveniles earlier in the summer, all since released, and now seven babies.

“I started out with eight babies, but the smallest and weakest one passed last night,” said Edwards, who’s been caring for the pink-nosed, big-eyed creatures since July 2. “I know, it’s nature.”

The baby opossums, now weighing just over an ounce, were found by a couple on a road in Lebanon crawling on their mother’s body after she was killed by a car.

After they called and told her what had happened, they made arrangements to deliver the litter.

“I thought they only had three, but when they brought eight, it was a little overwhelming,” Edwards said.

Nevertheless, she took on the task, giving each names of “Big Bang Theory” characters and keeping them in a fabric pouch between feedings of puppy formula through a syringe.

Edwards also takes calls from the public about wildlife for the nature center and helps take care of raptors there.

“But it’s the opossums that are my passion,” she said. “They’re so misunderstood. You hear people say they’re just a giant rat, which is so untrue.”

The only North American marsupial, opossums expanded their range from the South into the Northeast in the early 1900s, and their numbers have been growing ever since.

“They’re now pretty common, because they’re very adaptable,” said Laurie Fortin, wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “They’re good climbers, good diggers, they eat a varied diet and they adapt to most any habitat.”

Mainly nocturnal animals that move slowly across roads, they are often killed or injured when struck by cars while scavenging for roadkill mice, voles and frogs, Fortin said.

“We average about 600 to 700 opossums in rehabilitation in Connecticut each year,” she said. "We can see 12 to 13 babies from a single mom."

Edwards noted that opossums are not prone to contracting rabies, eat the ticks that carry Lyme disease, have a keen sense of smell and have very clean sanitary habits.

“They can be litter trained,” she said.

Swaddling Sheldon in a small square of fabric while she fed him, she gently grasped his back and then front paws.

With five fingers on his front paws and four plus an opposable thumb on his back, opossums have incredible dexterity.

“When they’re six to 12 months old, and 10 to 16 ounces, they’ll be big enough to be independent,” she said.

Mr. Wiggles, because he was raised without siblings, “never had that wildness,” she said, but she expects that won’t be true for Sheldon and his kin.

“They’ll start hissing at me,” she said.

j.benson@theday.com