On Tuesday morning, I noticed that the mother of my beautiful, young possums had not returned after her nighttime foraging. This had never happened before. I went to Long Reef for the day to photograph ospreys and returned late afternoon. Still no mummy possum. I asked ChatGPT for its opinion and it was pretty certain the young ones were not old enough to look after themselves. I worried that something had happened to mum.
I phoned WIRES which is a local wildlife rescue charity. They asked me to text through a photo of the youngsters and they would try to send someone over to have a look. By the next day, I hadn't heard back from them and mum was still not back. I called WIRES again and they said I should take the youngsters to their partner vet for an assessment. The vet would then pass them onto WIRES for rearing.
I lifted up the flower pot that the youngsters were in and put it into a box. Two of the young possums lay there in a docile state but the third was having none of it. Very unexpectedly and like lightning, it leapt out of the box, climbed the scaffolding of my hanging garden and disappeared. I was devastated. I had acute images of it dying from thirst and hunger, all alone.
With a heavy heart, I took the two youngsters in the box to the vet. The vet had a look and said "I think they may be old enough to look after themselves." She recommended I release them back on my balcony.
I felt so awful that I had caused the little ones so much trauma for nothing and that they were now separated from their sibling. I released them and they immediately disappeared up the hanging garden and away. I had now lost the beautiful family I had so grown to love over the past 2 months.
3 days went by. My heart was heavy. I so hoped the possums were ok. Had they hopefully reunited with their sibling and had they found a new nest? Were they able to look after themselves?
Then on Friday I was out on my balcony doing my daily sweeping. I looked wistfully at the flower pot that the possums had grown up in. To my surprise and immense, euphoric delight, there in the pot was not only the 3 young possums but their mother too! They were all ok and had returned to my balcony.
Lessons from the whole saga: Don't immediate believe what ChatGPT tells you. Also, trust in life. It has an immense, inherent intelligence to it. Possums have been living and thriving for millions of years and they have it totally sussed!!
