Wildlife Sanctuary

Continuing on the topic of animals it seems out house has become some sort of wildlife sanctuary.The possums have been plentiful recently with the nightly stampede across our tin roof sounding more like elephants and consequently stirring up Pippa in the process. As summer approaches with the warm nights the possum get out a little earlier and are generally a bit more noisy when growling at each other.

However the other night we were greeted by a new experience. It was around 11.30pm as we were thinking about going to bed when we could hear something scratching on metal. Thinking a possum had somehow got stuck in the watering can in the front garden, Andy went out to investigate. He found the watering can, no sign of any possum plus the scratching had stopped. About half an hour later the scratching started up again and off detective Andy went only to report that he thought a possum was stuck down the downpipe adjacent to our bedroom.

Feeding a skipping rope down, Andy had vague ideas that the possum would be able to climb back up. In hindsight the possum was wedged head first down with no chance of turning around so this plan would have never worked!! Again the scratching had stopped, so off to bed we went sometime after midnight.

While I voiced my concerns about the poor possum, the possibility of it dying and blocking the downpipe and perhaps we would need to take the downpipes off somehow in the morning, the scratching started up again! There was no way we would be able to sleep listening to this noise. Andy suddenly jumped up saying he had an idea. Donning head torches and spanners off we went out into the front garden to unscrew the bolts on the brackets which held the gutter in place.

It was easier than expected and we soon had the gutter lying down on the grass. We thought the possum would be eager to scamper out but it was well and truly wedged in and needed a little encouragement from the end of the broom! Out it popped voicing it's disapproval before scuttling up the tree. Next thing we knew a large possum, probably it's parent, was giving it the once over! Hopefully the little possum has learnt their lesson and won't be venturing down any more downpipes!! We climbed back into bed at 1.45am to claim what sleep we could!

The moment of freedom!

Safely back in the tree!

It seems that our girls love animals too. I arrived home last week to find Ella attempting to coax a blue tongue lizard out of our garage with dog biscuits!! Actually she was wanting to catch it with her bare hands!! Mr Lizard wasn't too keen with this idea, nimbly hiding in hard to get places and adding a hiss or two for effects. Finally Andy arrived home also in time to see this spectacle. Eventually we convinced Ella to let Mr Lizard go on his way, which ever way that was (probably into the woodpile) and a few hours later he had disappeared.