Friday, January 11, 2008

An Unexpected Guest!


Last week DH was changing the light globe in the kitchen; when he took the transformer part of the globe out of the ceiling - look who greeted him!!
Our guest is affectionately known as "Turkey" following DS5 and his poor hearing changed his name from something remotely like "Possum" to ... Turkey.
He/She/They (goodness - I hope not a whole family or even tribe of possums) live in the cavity between the kitchen ceiling and our bedroom floor. Well, that's one place.
There has also been another possum which unfortunately manifested itself in a storage space about 18 months ago - when I was 6 months pregnant. I was looking for something in the storage area when I saw a slight movement under a box I was about to move. I jumped and screamed loud enough to bring the whole family running. That possum stayed still long enough for the boys to have a peek, then we closed up the storage space and rang WIRES to see what we could do about it. They suggested to wait until night time when the possum left to find food, then board up the entry hole so it couldn't get back in. Well, we boarded up the hole to the storage area but not to the entire roof cavity. (We are still not 100% certain where they get in and out). Several weeks later, one of our dogs was barking madly in the backyard, and we found a very sad and sorry looking possum sitting quietly beside our house. It had been attacked by something and was bleeding from its upper back. It was so dazed or weak that we had little trouble catching it and putting it in a box to take to a nearby vet, where they handle native animals. Unfortunately the vet told us they would have to put it down, as it was too badly wounded to survive.
So, even though the thought of a tribe of possums foraging in our house does not thrill me, I am happy if we are providing this little one with a safe haven.

3 comments:

Melanie H said...

What a beautiful little face. I would have had a scare too. Lol

BruganCampbell said...

What a cute vistor - would have scared the life out of me though!
scrapNshop from AC Forum.

Elizabeth said...

Aw so cute! I love it. Have you found any more?