'Possum Stu

Stuart bluff-bared his teeth in startlement at the human’s touch. Vaguely in his sleep he had heard his human call his name, and since generally she continued calling until he woke and washed and walked out on his own, tonight he had just rolled over and drifted back to sleep. However, this time she reached right into his cozy nest and pulled him out! Stu struggled out of her arms to climb up onto her shoulder, more comfortable when he was hanging onto her, not the other way around. Her gentle hand on his tail lent him a feeling of security as she walked out to the kitchen and sank down crosslegged on the floor by the cricket tank.

Fully awake at the prospect of insects, Stu succumbed to the inevitable. Clever by nature (especially with edible motivation), he had quickly mastered the fastest and easiest way to get a few delicious crickets, even though it meant defying instinct.

“Upside-down ’possum,” the crazy human said, her delight clear in her tone as she turned him over onto his back. Acquiescing, Stu lay quietly in her arms while she pressed her face to his belly and inhaled the spicy-musky scent of his chest. Patiently he waited, until finally he heard the words he was waiting for:

“Perfect! That was a perfect upside-down ’possum!” She let him turn right-side-up as she rattled the lid of the cricket tank open, and Stu ate several scrumptious bugs from her hand one by one, each time carefully assessing where her fingers were before grabbing the wriggling cricket. After that, she tossed a few onto the floor, and Stu caught and crunched them with an efficiency and economy of movement worthy of a creature so successful that they have remained essentially unchanged for millennia.