Our Mascot.
Breaking news - Fluff junior version five is out
Linux has Tux.
Mono has it's monkey.
We have Fluffball the brushtail possum.
Fluff is a third generation nerd possum. Possums only moved into the area around 2001.
Several moved into my ceiling and expanded into the front junk room and shed.
Fluff was raised my her mum inside the bathroom ceiling.
Each generate is tamer and cheekier. Fluff has decided she owns the house not me.
Fluff is a bit on the clumsy side and has a habit of knocking things over and sometimes breaking them. She also eats my pot palants.
I've never fed these guys before but I'm now working on a truce - banana in the bathroom if she stays out of the kitchen - we'll see how it goes.
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9'th July 2008.
Fluffy is a mother.
I notice a hard lump in her pouch and she let my feeling inside where I felt a leg and the top of the joe's head. It is mid winter here and joe is still fairly hairless. I'd expect we'll see it start to look out in a few weeks.
10'th August.
Joey still isn't coming out. It is still cold here.
You can see here that Fluff trusts nerds enough to let them open her pouch and see and touch her baby. I'm surprised how tame she became in a matter of weeks. Remember this is not a captive or hand reared possum.
Her grandmother moved in uninvited and every generation is less afraid of humans.
Possums are not social animals. Junior will be kicked out before junior no2 comes along.
There is also a video clip of me looking in her pouch as in the photo above.
joey1.mpg (9.68 Mb)
13-Sept-2008.
Junior Ginger has only been out of the pouch for a couple of weeks and fluff is already leaving him on occasion.
I tend to refer to it as "he" even though I don't have a clue what sex it is. The sex of young possums isn't obvious and I haven't really tried to tell.
She came down by herself tonight. Jr started to come down but retreated when I offered to help. She ignored Jr and after her snack she had a bit of an explore around the bathroom and decided to hide under the spa where she couldn't be seen.
After a while Jr came down and I sat him on my shoulder. Fluff climbed back up and the pair of us tried to persuade him to let go of my t-shirt. Eventually he climbed onto her head and all was well.
As I type this there are snarling noises coming from the ceiling. Either there is another possum up there or she saying "get off my back" in no uncertain terms.
I would not be at all surprised if fluff moved into the bathroom alone.
Fluff has always been happy for me to hold the baby. If fact I got the strong impression she didn't particularly want him back.
He is growing up rapidly and I expect the family will be breaking up in a matter of days not months as I'd originally thought.
25'th Oct 08,
Fluff and Ginger are still both living with me. Sometimes they come down together but often not. When I'm home fluff often comes down in the middle of the day but Ginger is still pretty nocturnal. Ginger isn't very ginger any more and is almost as grey as mum.
There is also a little video clip
Fluff trivia
One fact little known about brushtails is their liking for wearing hobnailed boots.
I've never actually seen them wearing their boots but often hear them running along the roof in them.
This usually occurs between the hours of two and four AM.
Fluff diode
I've been suspecting the existence of a possum diode in this region of space time.
Some might call it a possum non-return valve.
I suspected this because I'd close everything to keep fluff out and come home to the smell of banana, find things knocked over and a well fed possum sitting on the shelf.
I had guessed the location of the diode wrongly.
I thought she was dropping down through my temporary (covered) access hole into the ceiling and unable to get back up. This was not correct.
She squeezes through the hollow wall and drops down onto the window sill head first.
She needn't have bother because I was home and the door open - she's not too bright.
The diode has a forward drop of .6M
We had a little tiff because she knocked over a lot of stuff before I could shoo her out.
I need to increase the impedance of the circuit to reduce the conduction of possum to zero.
Thanks to Dave and Natasha for taking the photos of me with the wild animals.