Monkey Rabbit
Being an absolute animal freak since I was a child, I have always had pets of almost every variety there is. One of the things I used to do quite frequently during the breeding season was to stop the car and get out to check the pouches of any possums I saw lying on the road to see if there were any babies in there. I had successfully reared several and so had some experience at doing this, especially from mums who'd been shot by overzealous farmers. This particular morning, I was on my way to the school where I worked as a teacher, when I saw a freshly killed possum obviously hit by a car as she had tried to cross the road. As usual, I got out to check the pouch and there was a minute baby so young that it had barely any fur and, as I'd never had success with one so young, I didn't think its chances of survival would be too high. However, I decided to try anyway and took it – “it” turned out to be “he” – home with me. He was very cold and wouldn't attempt to suck at the formula I offered. (Young possums attach themselves to a nipple in the pouch the way kangaroos do and I had detached him from his dead mother's nipple). I put him into my bed wrapped in a woolly jumper with the electric blanket on, in the hope that he would warm up and so decide to suckle. Not so!! I was desperate, when I had an idea. I owned a red and white Manx cat named Monkey Rabbit, who had just weaned a litter of kittens and still had some milk. We all know what great mothers cats are and so I decided to give the idea a try. I put the possum into the kittening box with Monkey and, to my amazement, she started to purr immediately. After a bit of coaxing, the possum found a nipple and started to suckle!!!! Monkey licked him all over and stayed in the box with him for some time, then decided to leave him to sleep. However, he had very different ideas. Possums cling to their mothers' backs and this was to prove no exception. It was the funniest thing to see Monkey trying to rid herself of this "thing" which had attached itself to her and would not let go. In the end, she gave up and the baby possum was permitted to ride around on her stomach, hanging on for dear life with his tiny "paws". This story had a happy ending as, thanks to Monkey Rabbit, a very helpful vet and an excellent milk substitute, the possum grew into an adult who became known as Sugarmagundi. He became a bit of a nuisance as he grew, because he believed he belonged inside with his "mother" and she believed that he belonged outside in the trees with the other possums. Sugar was very tame and no matter what we did to try to make the house possum proof he always found a way inside to curl up with Monkey, even when she had other litters. Eventually, he discovered that lady possums were far more interesting than his "mother" and he found a mate to live happily ever after with.He always came to visit around dusk each night to say hello and to get his piece of bread and sugar - hence his name. He loved to lie in wait after dark and, hanging from a low branch by his tail, would grab the hair of anyone who passed by beneath him. This was quite a scary thing when you weren’t expecting to be swiped by his sharp claws. He got my mother-in-law on a number of occasions! Sugar’s nocturnal visits into the house eventually stopped but he continued to hang from the trees to play his practical joke on any friends or family who were foolish enough to visit after dark.
Being an absolute animal freak since I was a child, I have always had pets of almost every variety there is. One of the things I used to do quite frequently during the breeding season was to stop the car and get out to check the pouches of any possums I saw lying on the road to see if there were any babies in there. I had successfully reared several and so had some experience at doing this, especially from mums who'd been shot by overzealous farmers. This particular morning, I was on my way to the school where I worked as a teacher, when I saw a freshly killed possum obviously hit by a car as she had tried to cross the road. As usual, I got out to check the pouch and there was a minute baby so young that it had barely any fur and, as I'd never had success with one so young, I didn't think its chances of survival would be too high. However, I decided to try anyway and took it – “it” turned out to be “he” – home with me. He was very cold and wouldn't attempt to suck at the formula I offered. (Young possums attach themselves to a nipple in the pouch the way kangaroos do and I had detached him from his dead mother's nipple). I put him into my bed wrapped in a woolly jumper with the electric blanket on, in the hope that he would warm up and so decide to suckle. Not so!! I was desperate, when I had an idea. I owned a red and white Manx cat named Monkey Rabbit, who had just weaned a litter of kittens and still had some milk. We all know what great mothers cats are and so I decided to give the idea a try. I put the possum into the kittening box with Monkey and, to my amazement, she started to purr immediately. After a bit of coaxing, the possum found a nipple and started to suckle!!!! Monkey licked him all over and stayed in the box with him for some time, then decided to leave him to sleep. However, he had very different ideas. Possums cling to their mothers' backs and this was to prove no exception. It was the funniest thing to see Monkey trying to rid herself of this "thing" which had attached itself to her and would not let go. In the end, she gave up and the baby possum was permitted to ride around on her stomach, hanging on for dear life with his tiny "paws". This story had a happy ending as, thanks to Monkey Rabbit, a very helpful vet and an excellent milk substitute, the possum grew into an adult who became known as Sugarmagundi. He became a bit of a nuisance as he grew, because he believed he belonged inside with his "mother" and she believed that he belonged outside in the trees with the other possums. Sugar was very tame and no matter what we did to try to make the house possum proof he always found a way inside to curl up with Monkey, even when she had other litters. Eventually, he discovered that lady possums were far more interesting than his "mother" and he found a mate to live happily ever after with.He always came to visit around dusk each night to say hello and to get his piece of bread and sugar - hence his name. He loved to lie in wait after dark and, hanging from a low branch by his tail, would grab the hair of anyone who passed by beneath him. This was quite a scary thing when you weren’t expecting to be swiped by his sharp claws. He got my mother-in-law on a number of occasions! Sugar’s nocturnal visits into the house eventually stopped but he continued to hang from the trees to play his practical joke on any friends or family who were foolish enough to visit after dark.
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