If you have ever left a window or door open at night and been woken by the crashing sound of one of the plentiful population of Island possums in your kitchen fruit bowl then you might be intrigued to learn that fruit, bread and biscuits are not the end of it.

Possums do not greatly endear themselves to me as most mornings they will have urinated, usually across our deck table, depositing a thick and pungent syrup that if left too long, even stains the sealed timber. The syrup is usually accompanied by a small arrangement of half a dozen or so olive seed-sized brown droppings. These are usually dry and not offensive and are brushed straight into the garden below.

Recently however, yours truly awoke to find the usual signs of the resident possum having snuffled his/her way across our verandah and its furniture. But instead of the usual brown pile I was shocked to find several pure white poohs (or so I thought) right beside a copy of an Island newsletter of a similar hue. As if to make a statement about the quality of said publication the marsupial had clearly munched away the corners of several pages and then, right beside the meal, left several scats to prove it.

Astonished, I collected up the little bullets and consulted possum carer Jenny Mulcahy who suggested that a hungry possum will eat paper but that it would take anywhere between a day and a week to pass through the gut.

Next I consulted Zoologist Eric Vanderduys who was surprised too, especially as the pooh hadn't been stained by any other items in the critter's colon and deeper recesses. He was also amazed that the neat bundles were seemingly produced so quickly as to be right beside their source. He suggested I contact the experts at the Queensland Museum (still waiting a response) but thought that the possum may have simply munched so far then retched up the pulp.

I wasn't surprised, having personally found the publication quite indigestible too, but we were both unsure as to what shape and appearance the retchings of possums usually took. Subsequently we are hoping readers with such knowledge or with good stories about possum antics, literary or culinary, will make use of our comments dialogue box below and hopefully enlighten or at least entertain us with their experiences.

Over to you!