Actually, I must confess I didn't take that photo. I found it on the Internet over here, at a gallery by Ákos Lumnitzer. My own photo, frantically taken by my phone which I happened to have in my pocket, is of a blurred furry possum bottom with white-tipped tail retreating into the distance along the fence. It's a cute bottom, though.
So as I was saying, FIL was taking off the cladding/ceiling stuff from the eaves, and as he pulled down a big piece he found a little ringtail possum, and the remains of it's grassy drey, sitting petrified in the middle of the board. It had frozen on the spot - as you would, if your house suddenly dropped out into daylight beneath you - so he was able to carry it down the ladder and take the whole lot over to the shrubbery, where the creature sprang back into life. He (or she) paused for a few moments to take stock - while I snapped my picture - probably thinking 'WTF just happened?' and then trundled away into the neighbour's yard (he picked the yard with all the bushes and trees, so a good one I think). But now I'm left thinking poor bugger, where is he going to go now? and that train of thought takes me to thinking about possum boxes, and where could I put one or two since we have no trees (yet) and if I put a box under the eaves would that tempt him back into the roof? - which we don't want since possums wear boots at night and go dancing - but maybe I could put one under the eaves of the shed which has no ceiling for a possum to build a nest in ... and so on. I really think that humans should be making spaces for wildlife to live in, since we've taken so much of it away already.
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