MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A South Memphis mother of seven has discovered several unexpected and unwelcome visitors in the home they rent: a family of opossums.

Sheno Cullens is hesitant to walk down her basement steps and is scared she’ll see another opossum after the first critter showed up about three weeks ago.

“My kids saw them. They was actually in their closet looking for school clothes and they saw something run past they foot and they screamed and hollered and ran into my room,” Cullens said.

It was only the beginning of the opossum odyssey at the rental property.

“The next night, same thing. But it was two the next night,” Cullens said.

So far, the scariest sighting was while three of her seven youngsters were asleep in bed.  

“I done felt one sitting in they pillow right above their head, so that’s close enough for them to bite one of my children. I don’t want nothing to harm my babies,” she said.

Cullens is pretty sure opossums are coming in through these broken windows and rotted frames she’s tried to shore up.

“There’s no glass or nothing here, just what I got taped up to try and keep the opossums out,” she said.

It’s not working, and neither, she says, is her landlord who hasn’t responded to Cullens’ text messages about the critters or other issues here like faulty plumbing. We tried calling the landlord as well to get some answers, but there was no answer.

For now, Cullens is paying $650 monthly for rent and believes her landlord should be more accountable.

“Doing everything I’m supposed to do as a tenant. She’s not doing what she needs to do as a landlord,” Cullens said.

WREG contacted the Shelby County Health Department. We were told since opossums are considered wildlife, we should contact Memphis Code Enforcement. We reached out to the City about the opossums and other issues Ms. Cullens showed us at the rental property.