The Possum

We went into the garage the other morning and found a load of tools and equipment scattered all over the floor, including a lot of my glass gear. Some of the glass and boxes at the window had been knocked over, too. We figured it was Smokey, chasing a bird at the window. We tidied up and thought not much more of it.

The next day, everything was scattered again! We figured we had a Beast. It didn't take long to find our guest, hiding behind a box. We had to look up what it was - never seen one of these before! Behold our visitor, a Possum, the only marsupial species in North America. A bit scared, here.

The possum in the garage

I went to the vet to see if they had any traps. They don't, but Kim who works there has one, that she kindly fetched from home and lent me. We put down some dry cat food pellets and waited to see what happened. Next morning - possums are nocturnal - the trap was empty. So Alan bought a tin of wet cat food and we tried again. This time; success! A possum in a box. He ate every scrap of food; poor thing must have been starving, he was with us for four nights.

Here he is outside, getting some fresh air before we released him.

We took him up to the far end of the garden to release him, away from the house. Alan set the trap down and opened the door. The possum came out pretty quickly and dashed off into the grass. He was last seen making a bee-line back towards the house... but the garage door is shut now ;-) Watch his release in the video below.