Monday 6 April 2009

More Friends

Here are our two resident brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), they are a mother and her young. They live in the ceiling above the kitchen. They descend through the wall and come out under the house shortly after dark. We live in a typical Queenslander house, which is made of wood and raised off the ground. They are our friends but not entirely welcome tenants as they might do damage up there. But I'm sure they will take good care up there.

 This is what wikipedia has to say about them;

Brushtailed possums are also very intelligent creatures, with brainpower comparable to a dog. This makes hand reared possums ideal to teach tricks. Common tricks can include "sit" and "hiss" but they can also be trained to "fetch" with enough time. It is important to remember when training brushtailed possums to be firm with the instruction and always give a reward such as fruit or vegetables.


This is interesting as Tim and Mandy use apples to give me during agility training, so I don't see why they shouldn't come along.  Their brainpower is comparable to mine (although I have never read a possum's blog.) I reckon they might do all right if we take them along tomorrow. 

Life is great when you have lots of furry friends.

11 comments:

Ruby and Penny said...

Hi Ruby Isabella
That would be so cool. You could have so much fun training with the possums and going to trials with them.
Have fun.
Love Ruby & Penny

Dexter said...

Maybe you can do some freestyle routines with those furry things.

BTW - You get APPLES during training time? I am going to have to get those on the list for me!

Kisses,
Dexter

Anna the GSD said...

Those look an awful lot like the squirrels here in my yard that talk smack to me...hmm....

I love apples! Strawberries also rock.

Ari_1965 said...

Oh, we don't have these kind in my area. We have the more prehistoric-looking opossums with the longer snoot and the skinny tail.

Lee said...

Grrrrr!

Ruby Isabella said...

R + P- That would create a bit of a stir, wouldn't it?

Mango- Apples are great! Freestyle routine, there is an interesting imagine.

Anna- Strawberries! You're a lucky dog! I very rarely get strawberries.

Ari- I've never seen your type. I'll have to look them up.

Lee- I have a good relationship with our possums except when they bounce along our tin roof in the middle of the night.

Amber and Nala said...

They are much cuter than the possums we have here. That is very neat that they are so smart!!

Nala

Anonymous said...

Very cute, wish I had possums, I'm afraid I might have mice in the ceiling and I just can't bring myself to do anything fatal about it. Really with a house of three cats you would think I would at least be spared mice moving in.

Honey the Great Dane said...

Oh Ruby,

They are SOOO cute!! I shouldn't tell you this but possums are pests here in NZ and everybody hates them...they shoot them and make things out of their fur...and I even get possum sometimes as part of my Raw Food diet! (the company that supplies my raw food does rabbit and chicken and lamb..and now possum!)

But my humans say that they WOULD like to have one for a pet...

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Confessions of a Wandering Soul said...

Hey Ruby,
These fury creatures are cute arent they!I used to feel sick in my stomach whenever I passed by stores selling possum pies in NZ.Have fun with your new mates and make sure they dont end up in pies over there.

Ruby Isabella said...

Amber and Nala- They have looks and brains!

Book Pusher- You should ask your mice nicely to move out.

Honey- It is unfortunate that possums cause problems over there.

CWS- Don't worry, they are safe on this side of the Tasman.