Surprise guests in the country

Being out in the country, every now and then we get a surprise visitor on the verandah, like we did last night!

Whilst enjoying the very watchable The Adjustment Bureau, Mel and I were surprised by an energetic banging at the french doors on verandah. I went over and parted the curtains, expecting to find our two young cats have a boisterous beatup on the doorstep.

Instead, to my surprise, I came nearly eye to eye with a possum, halfway up the door with claws dug deep into my nice woodwork! The expression in his eyes match my own - "Oh! Didn't expect to see you there!"
He was a big boy, easily the size of both the cats together. Geronimo, the smaller cat, was out of bed and possibly was the cause of the possum deciding to climb my door. Stilton, the larger cat was in bed watching the beast, his face saying "I ain't going near it!!" In the light, it seemed Geronimo was having second thoughts about the possum as well, as he demonstrated when the possum decided he'd seen enough of me, and jumped down next to him. Ohh...those claws...

Anyway, the bugger decided enough was enough, and off he went over the side of the verandah. Merlot the dog was most upset at not being able to join in, but as the pic below shows, I would have had to take him to the vets next day for stitches.

Photo courtesy of a most amusing article: http://www.squidoo.com/the-lost-cat

It's amazing that I get the wildlife up on the porch. It's around four feet above the ground at this end, but that hasn't stopped the possums (fair enough), wallabies (for my international friends, these are small cousins of kangaroos) and even the damn sheep when they jailbreak, from pressing their wet noses on my nice windows!