The house is dark and quiet. The cats are curled up in bed, sleeping soundly, snoring quietly. In the garden, a large rat-like creature with a long bare tail creeps around under the trees. It climbs up the trunk of the red hibiscus and walks along the top of the brick fence until it reaches the bamboo section of the front fence. Under the cover of the heartleaf philodendron that climbs along the top of the fence, it keeps an eye on the movement in the house. At the end of the fence, it stops and scans the surroundings.
When the coast is clear, and it’s sure the cats are sleeping and there are no other dangers, it steps down onto the corrugated awning over the gate and slowly walks towards the house. The roof creaks a little as it moves towards the house. Reaching the wooden floor, it stops again, waiting by the bittersweet nightshade to double check the cats haven’t moved and there are no other predators lying in wait. From there, the plates of leftover cat food are only a few centimeters away. It can smell its delicious meal.
The black-eared opossum eagerly approaches the plates and eats every scrap of food the cats have left behind. Traces of cooked fish, rice, and broccoli vanish off the plates as the animal feasts in the middle of the night. It’s usually quite late at night when he sneaks into the house, but on occasion, it arrives in the wee hours and is still eating when the cats wake up at dawn. The curious cats hover nearby to observe the animal while it has its breakfast, keeping their distance.
A scuffle in the kitchen wakes me up just on sunrise and I get up to investigate. Max has pounced from her perch in the neem tree onto the awning and blocked the opossum’s escape. It hisses loudly at the rapidly approaching cat, backing away from the perceived danger and then freezes next to the aloe vera plants and pretends to be a statue, seemingly embarrassed to be caught out of its den in broad daylight. The cats don’t attack it, aware that its powerful jaws and sharp saw-like teeth could rip out their throats in a fight they wouldn’t win. However, they are now on high alert and watching every movement the opossum makes.
At this point, I return to the bedroom and grab the camera to take some photos of the wildlife roaming around inside my house. I also have no intention of harming the animal, except to shoot it with a lens. The opossum, blocked from returning home via the route it entered the house, is searching out alternative exits. It races to the corner of the living room, moving faster now than it has all night, and climbs straight down the house post into the garden, before returning to the hibiscus tree to climb back up the trunk so it can climb over the fence and go home and sleep for the day, resting up for another adventure of food foraging during the night. If there is any leftover cat food at the end of the day, it will probably return to the house...