It’s when the wildlife comes inside the house that I generally don’t ooh and ahh quite so graciously.  

Little black ants marching around the ceiling on the cornices don’t worry me too much as they always march straight out again.

And the mice companions at our place have not yet hit the plague proportions of last year.

But a new and very interesting wildlife experience awaited me recently, before the first cold snap of the season.  

Alone in the lounge room late at night, I heard a scratching sound from behind the glass in the Coonara heater. 

I slowly turned, only to see little claws trying to dig their way through. 

The claws were attached to furry arms, a sniffy nose and soft fluffy belly – there was a possum trying to watch telly with me.  

All of a sudden the bumps in the night throughout the previous week made sense. 

I had been commenting that the possum who regularly scampers across our roof had gained a little weight. 

I now realised that some kind of accident had seen our local pet fall down the chimney and move into the pile of kindling I had stacked in the fireplace – ready to strike a match when the temperature dropped.  

It really was quite surprising to have such company in the house.

And I couldn’t help but picture another family member haphazardly opening the heater door to have a possum fly into their face a la the squirrel leaping out of the Christmas tree in Chevy Chase’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  

Hoping our possum could sort this problem out on his or her own, and really quite unsure how to proceed, Kym passed in a much appreciated plum and Tiani provided some water, and we all thought deeply about the situation. Especially Buster.    

A couple of days consideration, and a cold snap, saw me tackle our nocturnal tenant with a tea towel and release a creature who seemed overjoyed to climb the pine tree nearby.  

Only then did Kym inform me that possums can inflict quite a bit of damage with those sharp little claws and teeth if tempted.