Here's a photo of Amiri peering out of Box 7 when Kiki left him alone in the garage about a week ago.
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| Amiri looking out of Box 7 - 7th Sept 2013 |
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| Amiri back-riding on Kiki - 11th Sept 2013 |
Amiri has reached the stage where he's starting to tear pieces of food from Kiki's mouth - another annoying stage of possum childhood which the mothers have to endure.
Here, Amiri is happily eating a piece of pita bread which he snatched from Kiki, demonstrating that stolen food does indeed taste better.
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| Amiri - 12th Sept 2013 |
I want to restrict this blog to possum-related subjects, so I'll forgo commenting on the recent federal election, and instead let Pogo Possum speak for me:
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| Pogo Possum comments on the 2013 Australian federal election |
Incidentally, if you're interested in Pogo Possum comics (or other comic art by Walt Kelly), a really good place to go is the Whirled of Kelly blog.
Did Kiki leave Amiri alone all day on the 7th, or was she out and about during daylight???
ReplyDeleteMy election comment is First Dog On The Moon's cartoon here:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/09/06/a-candle-in-the-darkness/
(Crikey is a subscription site but you can join free for a quick look around - it's worth to see this cartoon :) )
Amiri hasn't been left alone during daylight hours to my knowledge, however he spent two consecutive nights on his own in the garage on the 7th and 8th. The photo showing Amiri alone in Box 7 is a bit misleading; it looks like daylight but it was actually taken at about 11 pm after he returned to the box for a rest.
DeleteI've seen this sort of thing before with mother possums; they'll often leave surprisingly young babies (still suckling and back-riding) on their own for long periods and even all night. I think it's partly that the mother might want a break from lugging the heavy baby around all night, but also it's probably part of the education process of the young possum. The baby won't have a fierce mother possum looking after it for very long and it needs to learn how to look after itself as quickly as possible.
I think that people sometimes don't understand this. They see a baby possum alone in a tree and they assume that it's been orphaned or abandoned and "rescue" it, whereas it's quite possible the mother was going to return for it later. I think that if a baby possum is found alone in the open during daylight hours, or is actively rejected by its mother (this seems to happen occasionally with Sneddo's possums), it's fair game for rescuing, but otherwise would be better left alone.
The First Dog On The Moon's cartoon reminds me of something by Michael Leunig. :) What I'd hope, though, is that Abbott and his useless mob of clowns will prove far too incompetent to implement a totalitarian state like what was pictured. Howard was cunning but Abbott is just a buffoon. I wouldn't trust him to organise a barbecue.
Actually, I take that back. Bjelke-Petersen was just as much of a buffoon as Abbott, and he manged to build an impressively corrupt police state in Queensland. Dark times indeed.
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