What on earth Wednesday: Things that go bump in the night

Our cottage is surrounded by noise. Bandicoots crash out of the ferns and snuffle their way around the yard. Cockatoos shriek en masse.

But the possums? Well, they're the noisiest of them all. Their midnight footsteps on the tin roof could easily be mistaken for a large man in workboots! And when they're chasing each other, it sounds as though they're up there galloping until they crash into a nearby tree with a thud. Add in the growls and the screeching and it can be crazy.

But it's not unusual. Mid-morning after one particularly noisy night, we heard a scratch in what seemed to be the downpipe. Strange. A mouse? A rat? Or even possibly an antechinus seeking shelter from the suddenly cold evenings? We thought about it, didn't think it was a big deal and moved on with our day.

During the night, there was a new sound. Hard to describe but it sounded as though whatever was in the pipe wanted to get out and couldn't. There was no shrieking or squealing or anything else much, but the next morning we decided to pull apart the pipe and try to work out what was happening.

It took a bit of fiddling and some head scratching but eventually we detached the downpipe and as I peered down the metal tube I spotted a furry ball at the very end. What on earth? I grabbed some leather gloves and a box and towels and we laid the pipe down so we could finally see what we were dealing with. It was our local possum joey IN THE DOWNPIPE and he was not happy!

Normally at this point I'd say leave it to the experts. But I've worked with native animals including possums before so I felt up to the task and this fellow was already stressed and no doubt cold and terrified. A gentle nudge and he was in the box and letting everyone know about it! Thankfully, he had zero injuries and quickly nestled into the corner of the box where I added some banana then waited for dusk and the return of its mumma.

I'm very happy to report that mumma turned up, sat herself in a tree, staring down at us and watched. With a little encouragement, the joey ran towards her, gave a tiny call and mumma got to checking him over, licking his head and face. It didn't take long and the joey was back up on mum's back and sharing some apple that we gave them both as a reward for what must have been quite the adventure!

As the weather cools down, you might expect the wildlife to take it easy. But trust me, possums find a way to get into mischief all year round! If you find an injured or sick native animal, give the friendly folks at WIRES a call on 1300 094 737 and, for emergency rescue advice, head to the WIRES website.