The Possum Dance

It was night three, and I am settling into life here at Paddington.  I'm short on clothes - just didn't bring much with me, and I confess my wardrobe needs rebuilding.  I'd lost some weight, and I will lose more, so I plan to "make do" initially and as the weather warms up, add to the depleted collection of motley stuff that leaves me uninspired.  Now if I could lose another 10 kgs quickly I could do it.

I might just go for a short walk again, though the steep hills that I need to ascend before I find much level ground are a disincentive, but I will do.  Eating better and drinking (read "drinking wine") will assist and I will try and do some exercise daily - even if I have to drive to level ground somewhere.

I did work on my studies yesterday and did some shopping, and I was pretty weary when I went o bed around 10.30 pm.  I was almost finished my book "Marley and Me" - which I loved.  (As a doggy person I could relate to many of his stories, though with a very short legged dachshund we never had to deal with the4 high stepping dramas caused by Marley!)   I did finish it this morning.

I love the peace and quiet here - the occasional car passes by but with a dead end street to the side of the house, and the mountainous steep climb the other direction, there's not a lot of traffic.  I lay in bed and fell asleep to the tunes from FM 103.6.  That is until a dreadful loud noise interrupted my slumber.  I sat bolt upright and then after it stopped I checked the doors and windows.  There was nothing to see and it appeared I was alone in the house.

Then "the penny dropped."  The house owner, L I shall call her) had told me of her war on possums.  The cute little critters are everywhere here - plagues of them she said - and they like to chew on her garden.  She's had pots of herbs etc on the deck,but when the plants flourish the possums arrive and feast.  So there are bizarre cages around the herbs to keep the possums out.

It is illegal to harm a possum - but L has had a program of catch and release - with a huge wire trap and a piece of apple, she's manage to entice quite a few into the cage, and at night, she heads some distance away before releasing the traumatised animal into the wild with instructions not to return. 

Of course she has no way of knowing IF they return - but the breeding program (self imposed - they could well be native sex maniacs) they keep their numbers to excess which means that there is a shortage of good food from time to time and vegetable plots, gardens on balconies etc are fair game.

Well, it is Spring, so I guess the animals have procreation on their minds, so I lay in bed and listened to the possums dance across the roof - back and forth.  Were they doing a dance?  It sounded like a Rumba, and it went on for while until I eventually fell asleep.

Perhaps they moved to another dance hall (some one else's roof) but it didn't disturb me again and I woke at a goodly hour, just after 6 am.

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