We rarely see possums at this property, possibly due to being closer to paddocks and farmland than bush, so it took me a little while to understand the reason behind Badger’s uncharacteristic excitement before getting ready for his morning walk recently. I haven’t dubbed him Mr Mournful for no reason. Unlike all his predecessors his body language and facial expression tends to be inscrutable. We never know what he’s feeling – or perhaps thinking. Happy, sad, contented, enthusiastic? Who would know, and perhaps it’s an indication he still feels a bit insecure. We are after all his third human family and he’s been with us less than a year.
Looking up though it was immediately obvious what had got Badger exercised. There was a brush tail possum on the roof of the covered path to his palatial kennel home. Possum didn’t appear to be at all concerned. He/she probably knew full well there wasn't a hope of either dog or human being a threat. Not at 6.30 in the morning anyway.
Badger was soon distracted as we left for our walk, and I hoped possum would take the opportunity to head off to properties new while we were away. And that’s what I thought had happened initially, but Badger knew otherwise. He was convinced possum was still about. He continued to whine and to be agitated, and it was only when I finally went outside to see what he was still fussing about that I realised why. Possum hadn’t moved off at all, it had just moved off the roof, and was under the eaves. Not so smart after all, but that's maybe because he/she was obviously a juvenile, and probably terrified. I wonder what happened to mum.
Possum was there all day, failing to move on when Badger went for his afternoon walk, so we could only hope it would take its chances later that evening when Badger was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted – since he’d hardly slept at all during the day – and tiptoe off into the night. Thankfully that is what happened. He left a smelly calling card behind though. Maybe it was the possum equivalent of giving us the finger!
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