Lucky Possum, Happy Ending

Happy Hung離澳兩週, 首先赴中國衡陽及長沙, 探訪ICC(International China Concern) 組織在當地管理的青少年中心, 繼而到北京参加「走長城」 (Walk the Wall) 活動.

HH離家前, 又捕獲另一隻「午夜舞王」.

以下是他臨走前的來信.

5 May 2012

Hi Sunwood and Sau Wai,

A possum was caught last night and I only realized it today late evening. If it was caught tonight then the poor Marsupial would risk dying in the cage after I return from HKG. My wife and sons are gutless to handle and release it.

How is your luck? Have you bought your cage? Do you still have midnight roof party on your ceiling? If you have not decided on buying a cage, you can come to get it during my two week absence.

There were serious fighting in the past weeks. I failed to catch one before I lent it to you. Now this time, I gave it a good flush washing. But this possum is a most prudent one.

I put the cage at a quiet back yard path where I heard it normally get pass going in and out of the house. It took three days of observation till the granny smith (apple) almost got dried up. But still it fell into the trap and happily finished up the apple.

It is a big possum, no wonder when it fought off possibly another intruder possum, it made fierce sound and ceiling trembling battle of life. But once caught, it stayed very very calm. Actually, this was the first possum really playing possum (dead) when I noticed it this late afternoon. It pretended to be dead no matter how much sound I made. I was actually taking out my mower to do mowing before I go. So the mower engine could not even "wake" it up.

This possum is "Playing possum"

In the photo, you can see its eyes were actually wide open. Eventually, when I moved it to the car ready for deportation, it "woke" up with an innocent look. It remained very very calm without a slight move of panic until the moment I was ready to release it. Then it suddenly was lighten up with great excitement. It disappeared into the darkness as soon as I open the cage. 

My camera was not quick enough to snatch its last image, so you get just a photo of bush land without the Happy Possum fleeing into its new home.

Home Sweet Home

 Happy Hung