Friday, October 14, 2005
Marmaduke
I tripped my way home this evening, on the bus, off the bus, on the bus, off the bus, and walk, walk down the street. This, in itself, is not a terribly unusual scenario. It is what I do nightly. Tonight, however, I met with the most interesting set of eyes. As I was walking, hurrying down, I saw these little eyes perched above me on a fence. Ho! thought me, a cat! Now, I am one for making friends of strange cats, and they of me. So it is not unusual that I should stop when I see reflective little eyes or that I should choose to engage them in what is, usually, a one-sided conversation. On this occasion, however, I was in for a surprise. My sweetly furred friend was not, as I had assumed, a cat. He was a possum. I have seen possums in the Inner West before; Sydney University is quite littered with them – and I don’t just mean those poor souls hidden in the bowels of the animal house. This one surprised me for his aura of calm and his quiet urbanity. My stopping and chatting did not perturb him in the least. My lack of nibbles, as he so eloquently sniffed out, did [oh how I regret eating my lunch time apple!]. As I was quite eager to be home, we parted ways without further conversation. He, off to make merry as only marmadukes can, and me, to comfort and idleness, as is my wont.
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4 comments:
I seriously adore possums. We used to have two at Marsfield that would come down and watch me write and smoke, late of an evening. They were the shiniest, calmest, most friendly possums I've ever met in my life.
Next time, pack some nibbles. :)
I was at Sydney Uni too! One guy I knew there - (a strange guy, he'd been at the uni, either working or studying, for ten years: I think he had agorophobia, and liked the security it gave him) - did a documentary about the stray cats around the university campus.
However, I think the most common form of wildlife around the Sydney Uni campus would not be the possums or the cats, but the ferals. They're human, and they should be avoided AT ALL COSTS.
I got my clearest ever view of a bat on Glebe Point Road last night - it flapped out of a low-slung tree and batted off to wherever bats go.
The best bit of Sydney Uni is the lab window somewhere between City Road and the Library that's got all the old car rego stickers from the 80's on it. That's the single most nostalgia-provoking thing I've seen in years, although I freely admit it has nothing to do with native fauna.
That's the first time I've heard of a 'low-slung tree'. I think it's quite poetic.
I was a possum in Alexandria late one night when I was walking back from Randwick - I would have sworn it was a weasel the way it compressed itself onto the pavement. Weasels seem to be popping up a lot today, don't they?
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