Tuesday, March 07, 2006

More soothing cuteness

My office mate took these photos in her garden last night:


She's been hand-feeding the mother possum for about a year now, and last night the little baby came along for the ride. Mama possum was even tame enough that she didn't mind baby possum being handled.



In my country we make them into socks:



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4 Comments:

Lucy said...

I have a pair of possum fur/wool blend gloves. I feel somewhat evil wearing them, but my dad gave them to me and they are soft and warm...
Possums are so cute! (although American ones are surprisingly ugly)

StyleyGeek said...

I've heard people say American ones are ugly. I always used to think NZ ones are ugly too, but I never really saw any up close, since they know what's good for them and keep well away from people.

I never really understood how "possum" could be a term of endearment until I saw the ones over here.

Lucy said...

Your photos are of the cutest kind of all. We only had ringtails at home, which aren't as fluffy and not quite so cute. I thought NZ ones were just imported ones of the same kind, but I've never actually seen one.

StyleyGeek said...

Ours are imported, but mostly black ones imported from Tasmania, and they tend to be bigger, since those are the ones the fur industry thought it would be most useful to introduce.

I think mostly we just think of them as ugly because we hardly ever see them close up, unless as roadkill. It's probably also the association with possums' destruction of native bush that makes most NZers find it hard to see them as cute even if they objectively probably are.