A Possum in a Trap

For the last five nights I have set the possum trap.  On dusk I lift the heavy sliding door up, slip the metal bar underneath it just a smidgeon, throw a slice of apple at the back behind the trip plate, and two smaller pieces just inside, and go inside my studio to continue painting, and later to bed.

Up until last night I had caught three blackbirds.  But no possum.

Last evening at about 10, long after dark, there was the usual sudden crash on the roof of the studio (luckily I wasn't in the middle of a fiddly bit) but when I went outside to have a talk to the brush-tailed offender, it wasn't interested in talk at all, leaving me only a glimpse of a tail as it raced over the hip of the roof.  Which seemed a bit odd, given it was incredibly bold before...

This morning at dawn (5 bloody 30) the usual shuffling and scufflings above my head in the ceiling told me that once again I'd not caught my nocturnally active guest.

So it was with great surprise that when I padded out in my dressing gown to release the usual captive bird, I found a very agitated and quite young other possum therein.

It was so scared I took pity on it and covered it with an old bedspread.  Later when the pest man was up, I took it up the hill to his house.  His two huge dogs will get a free feed tonight...

Brush-tailed possum - unwanted, but so appealing.

Meanwhile my house guest still poses a problem.  I suspect it was he that sprung the trap the first night, and now knows to steer clear of it.  He's not stupid.  What worries me a bit, is that this morning he seemed to be having an argument with someone up there - a few growls and a muffled screechy yowl or two.  Do possums talk to themselves?

And anyway, doesn't he know that 'after three days visitors and fish both go off'*?

* Old Chinese proverb.