First Encounter with Native Wildlife

Since I delayed starting this blog for so long I have a few posts to catch up on.  For now, though, I will offer a short anecdote.  As you all probably know, Australia is renowned for its diverse and plentiful wildlife and I recently had my first brush with it.

Here’s the scene.  Yesterday I’m in my 5 pm class, Sport & Education in Australian Society.  It’s in a small theater, and the entrance to the room is about halfway up the seats.  The row I’m sitting in is right next to this entrance.  The professor has the lights dimmed because she’s lecturing from a powerpoint.

It may look cute...

Now midway through the class the professor stops mid-sentence and—fairly nonchalantly—says, “Is that a rat?”  I don’t see it at first, but I hear scurrying coming down the row towards me.  Before I know it, I feel something on my foot, starting to crawl up my leg.  I like to pride myself on my fast reflexes, and in this instance I just reacted, kicking my leg away from me.  And there, in front of my eyes, is a rodent about the size of a cat, flying through the air three feet off the ground.

It hits the ground running and disappears into the seats.  Now I like to think of myself as being a calm, reasonable person who doesn’t get fazed easily, but I was terrified.  I mean the thing was crawling up my leg and it was still on the loose scurrying underneath the seats!

A Rodent Of Unusual Size

At this point the professor correctly identifies the animal and reassuringly tells the class, “Oh, it’s just a possum.”  Yeah, lady, it’s just a possum when you’re standing at the other end of a lecture hall, not when it tries to climb into your lap for a little snuggle.  Then it’s an R.O.U.S.  And we all saw what those did to Wesley.

Anyway, eventually we ushered the possum out the door and continued with the lecture.  Not before, however, my classmates could revel in the fact that “Jared kicked a possum!”