Possum's

Our house is surrounded by large trees and shrubs.  At night after I go to bed I hear thunder on the roof, as it is the Brushtail possums motorway, there is lots of traffic up there as they defend their territory and seek out their dinner.  I do like possums, but Amelia does not.  She thinks they shouldn't be on her patch so she barks and barks at them when she is outside at night.  I don't mind the possums, this is their home too and I'm happy to share the garden with them, if only Amelia didn't bark at them.  She now sleeps indoors at night due to the noise she makes through the night.  This is one of our Brushtail's in the Jacaranda tree at our back door.

On opposite corners of our house there are Ringtail possum nests.  When we first moved into this house there was a nest just outside the boys bedroom window with two little possums living in it.  Over time the nest fell apart but there is another one further up the tree now.  They are my favourite kind of possums.  Small, sweet and unobtrusive.  They keep to themselves in their family nests, unless of course they are disturbed by crows or cats.  This afternoon I spied this one (below) amongst our Wisteria, he popped up to see what was going on.  I was pulling at a long dangling Wisteria branch that kept hitting me when I took out the rubbish bins.  He was just happy to doze in the afternoon sun watching me every now and then.  I like lying in bed and hearing their little chirps as they communicate to each other either climbing along the wires or tree branches outside our window. 

A few weeks ago I rescued a baby Ringtail from a crow.  The crow had dragged it across the street and the poor little mite had nowhere to go.  Fortunately I saw it happening, chased the crow away and picked the little possum up off the road.  It was still fighting until I wrapped it up in a towel where it settled down.  I thought it might have a chance so raced it up to the vet.  It's still alive and a wildlife carer is looking after it now.  The poor little possum had lots of damage to it's face and near it's eyes where the crow pecked at it.  So here's hoping that this little possum returns back home to it's nest and lives to tell it's tail.  

If you find an injured native animal take it to your local vet as they are in contact with local wild life carers, or you could contact Sydney Wildlife.