He’s basically moved in, and even uses the litter box 😂👏💞
Maura McLaughlin was sleeping in her bed when she felt an odd sensation. In the middle of the night, fur was rubbing against her fingertips, but it didn’t feel like one of her cats.
“My door was shut, and I knew my cats weren’t inside,” McLaughlin, creator of the organization Off The Wall Grafitti, told The Dodo. “I was thinking, ‘Wait, what was that?'” And I just sprang awake and walked into the living room to sleep on the couch.”
McLaughlin discovered the next morning that she wasn’t the only one who had had an unexpected guest. “One of the artists residing in my daughter’s room came in and said, ‘I had the sweetest baby possum in my bedroom this morning,'” McLaughlin explained. “‘I simply grabbed it up and put it outdoors and said, ‘hi,'” she says.
McLaughlin had no idea how the possum got inside or why he opted to explore the bedrooms. So she forgot about it until six months later, when the guest came to her house in Sherman Oaks, California, and she was seated in the living room.
“I heard this strange sound and thought to myself, ‘That’s not my cats, that’s not a raccoon, what’s slurping at the water bowl?'” McLaughlin explained.
McLaughlin investigated the sound gingerly, only to see a possum stealing her cats’ food. When McLaughlin attempted to take the cat outdoors, he made it apparent that he didn’t want to go.
If the possum chose to remain, McLaughlin felt he had the same right to her house as the rest of them. “What I ended up doing was giving up and giving up to the reality that they were born here under my house,” McLaughlin explained. “These are simply ordinary members of the community.”
The possum appears to grasp the house rules, since he uses the litter box everytime he comes to dine on the cat food. McLaughlin’s cats don’t appear to mind sharing their litter box with the possum, nor do they seem to be bothered by the odd critter.
The possum appears to have just wanted to be like the cats, visiting at night to eat their food, drink their water, and use their litter box.
When McLaughlin doesn’t see the possum for a few days, she becomes concerned. After all, he’s just another happy young community member.