Showing posts with label fur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fur. Show all posts

Friday, December 4, 2009

Nature Notes ~ The Never Ending Story? Possums again...

Those of you who have followed the possum saga (just scroll
down a couple of posts and you will see) may remember that
as soon as we were back on the farm and it got dark, the alarm
people would ring to inform us that there was yet another
burgler in the dining room. It was becoming quite a ritual, so,
back we went next day to rectify the situation.

All photos enlarge so that you can see the cute and cuddly (looking)
creature.

After a prolonged search in dark places, we ran this little fellow to
earth behind the sofa.






















This time, apart from having thrown books about everywhere,
all the ornaments were off the window sill, he'd peed on the books
and pooped on the french polish of book cases and the rest of the
furniture. Although the dining table will never be the same again,
I was happy to see that he had eaten the bunch of tiny rosebuds
I had in a vase on it. There were stalks strewn across the
embroidered cloth but all the flowers and leaves were all eaten up.
Hmm, the water had soaked the french polish ...whoops...
Here is yours truly holding up the prize exhibit. It was only a poor
baby so I was glad he had found a feed and something to drink.
I apologise for maligning the previous possum by my reference to
'he', it was obviously a mama possum, more power to you little
possum!

Here is the little one hightailing it past the sage to freedom.
It is a wonder I got this shot since he was going faster than a
flying bullet!

Here is a handful of possum fur that came away when I was
catching the first one. Shock also makes for tender wool in
sheep as well as obviously possums. I suspect it to be an
escape mechanism to give them a head start in running away
while the big bad wolf is left spitting a mouthful of fleece.
The fur is incredibly fine and soft, almost like angora and
historically was used for making felt hats.




I do hope you enjoyed my latest adventure.
Thanks to Michelle of Rambling Woods we have this infornative
meme about nature. Click on the Logo to see more.
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