A phone call from the phone co-ordinator one day asking me to call a lady about a possum trapped in their stove. So I called the lady, and talk about panic stricken….obviously she was concerned that if she lit the stove, she might hurt the possum, but she was also concerned that the possum may suddenly untrap itself, and unleash itself on them one night, and slaughter them all in their beds, and she was also worried that what if it escaped as I was rescuing it and rampaged through the house? I managed to convince her that possums were not interested in killing anyone, and that seeing I had to rescue the possum from the stove in the first place it was highly unlikely it would get loose in the house, and I suggested that when I attempted to rescue it, she and the children could retire to a different part of the house, and shut the door to the kitchen, so if it DID escape, it would be contained in one room. So I made arrangements to check the stove out and see what could be done, and turned up shortly thereafter in protective clothing and with appropriate equipment for putting trapped possums in.
Well I got there and came face to face with a stove like a cockpit in a plane. I had never seen anything quite like it. It had dials, doors and compartments everywhere. I couldn’t actually work out, though, where you did your cooking. I knew the possum was in there somewhere, and just had to work out where. So the moment of truth arrived; mum and the kids withdrew and shut the door leaving me and dad to do battle with the possum. So we started undoing anything that looked hopeful, till we managed to catch a glimpse of fur. Trouble was it was a long way down, and just a little further than I could reach. Dad bravely volunteered to try and grab it, so I took the bag he was holding. He reached down, and grabbed a tail, and pulled firmly, and up came a very startled, not very big, sleepy possum. Just as Dad was lowering him into the bag, the door burst open, and in came Mum, who saw the possum and screamed. Well the poor possum woke up, and decided he didn’t like proceedings AT ALL! and started wriggling like mad. The only thing I could do was quickly get the bag round him, because I knew he was going to wriggle out of Dad’s grasp. Mum beat a hasty retreat as I secured the possum in the bag, much to Dad’s relief. Mum came back in, with the kids, and Dad verbally took a few pieces out of her for her almost disastrous interruption. She just wanted to see how things were going, she said. I stayed right out the simmering domestic, and pointed out I would be releasing this guy as soon as possible, and unless they covered the chimney, if he didn’t come back, another one would, and also pointing out that he would HAVE to go back near the house, because that’s where his territory was. I felt as though I was talking to a brick wall, and thought I’ll be back, and I hope it’s not a big one I have to pull out of that stove next time!
Time passed, and the people moved, and the house remained empty for a short time between tenants. One day when I was down the street, the real estate agent called me in and said they had a professional cleaner in getting one of their houses ready for occupation, and she heard funny noises coming from the stove, and wondered whether there might be a possum in it, would I mind having a look. He told me the address, and sure enough it was the same place. I called my friend Sue and round we went. Back to pulling this state of the art stove apart. Eventually, right down underneath everything, we saw an eye. And this was a big possum we could see when we shone the torch on him, but so far into the depths of the stove we didn’t have a hope of getting him. We had by this time worked out a little bit about the stove, so we put it back together, and left the flue open so hopefully he could go out again that night, and well after dark we went back. Again we pulled the stove apart, and this time no sign of the possum, so we reassembled it, and closed the flue. Next morning I returned the key and told them what we had done, and stressed how important it was to put a cover over the chimney. They promised it would be done, and it must have been, because the present tenants have reported no sign of a possum. Thank goodness!
Mamaroo's Diary 