Saw me first Possum this month. Fair dinkum

Who would have known. I've been in Australia 6 years, long enough to acclimate and take up citizenship, and I only just saw my first real live possum in my garden this month.

I have lived in fairly new residential estates up to now, and I've moved into an older more established suburb recently. Where the trees and wildlife have recovered somewhat from the trauma of installing a new suburb over an old paddock of grass or farmland. 

And there they were, 2 furry strange looking buggers running up and down my fence like a double act marsupial Spider-Men. They kinda look like a cross between a kangaroo and a meerkat. But stranger looking.

Two observations - first, they are a lot bigger than I thought. I've always had this impression of them as being somewhere between a small rabbit and a large rat. They were much bigger than that. Turns out, the ones I saw were bush-tail possums . Locally called Bushy's apparently . 

Second - That tail is something quite impressive. Not just because it big, bushy and completely dark compared to their grey/brown bodies, but because of its strength and agility. Reading about a possum hanging by its tail is not quite as impressive as actually seeing it. 

Hamish, the bossy little feline that owns us, was even less impressed when he went out the next morning and found one of the possums sleeping in a ball in the corner of the garden used for cat ablutions. 

I found it quite amusing, having my morning coffee and watching Hamish sniff at the curled up possum generally being unimpressed with the situation, while the possum stayed curled up with its nose buried in the corner of the fence. We eventually chased it away, a bit worried about rabies fleas and other pests and such. 

Hamish now inspects his corner and approaches carefully every morning, just in case. And he's keeping real close to me in the meantime. 

After being chased up the fence several times over 2 days, it seems the possums have moved to the other side of the fence. I expect they will invade my roof at some point, as apparently that is what they do. We will see.