From an ocean of love to a waterfall of pain, the six babies were the most remarkable story of mayhem contained. Whatever about managing and raising six little babies and then managing to control six inquisitive little adolescents, the job of managing six grown adults in a home environment spiraled wonderfully out of control.

Losing control of your own home would normally be seen as a negative and in some sense, I guess it was. But on the whole, the experience it gave us and the insight into possum relationships that it provided was unparalleled.

They were our family or we were theirs. While the home was chaotic, the endless drama brought such life and love into what was originally a place of peace.

The naive thought that we could sectionalize the living space was undone quickly as we learned how possums excel in climbing and in finding ways around any obstacle, given enough time. And their motivation to do so was someone of the opposite sex to love or of the same sex to go war with.

The whole house became a battleground and a wonderland ... an adventure playland for six amazing little creatures. And each little guy was different to the next even though physically I had difficulty telling them apart. I could barely remember their names ... Morgan was the true master of who was whom.

While she has endless stories of each of these amazing little characters, my favorite story is of Bitey, who lived on the landing right outside my bedroom door. This particular moment happened at the end of a physical labor day where I was building their sanctuary outside. As I came upstairs to have a shower, Bitey came to greet me. My hand was sore and as I began to stroke his head and back, he turned around taking my hand in his, turned my hand over and began to deep lick/massage the sore cushion of my hand. I was shocked but then even moreso, when as he finished, he then lay his head down in my still-overturned hand and hugged me for all of 20 minutes. I have never experienced such unexpected love and care from a creature before and for it to be from essentially a wild creature ... well, it still makes my heart skip a bit when I think about it.

Our lives will never be the same ... Brutus and Lady, Trouble, Bitey, Baby, and Littlefoot made sure of that.