Petaurus breviceps

Kikioh

My oldest granddaughter has been one of my best buddies all her life. When she was about two, she was ordering me around enough to make the wife envious. When she was nine, she helped me dig the first pond, then blasted me thoroughly for not being able to create a properly sounding waterfall. I'm sure that I've learned a lot since then about all sorts of things. While building a bat house for her that same year, I learned that table saws can be dangerous when approached by incompetent hands.

When she was in her senior year in high school, she decided that she'd like to be a breeder of Sugar Gliders. These little flying possums from the opposite side of the world would require a dozen to make a decent meal, but there are those who think they're cute. She thought they'd be in serious demand as pets.

I think she once had as many as half a dozen, including babies, but it's hard to peddle, among the crowd to which she has access, $300 animals that will fit in your hand. Her "business" was short-lived.

She took one to school each day (they seem to fit nicely into a bra, and the teachers did not seem to object to this).

Once, while the granddaughter was singing in a choral performance at the school, we wondered, as we watched her solo, if the possum was with her. So after the performance, we, of course, asked her. "No, .............'s babysitting", at which time a girl who had been in the offstage orchestra, reached into her bra, and pulled out two of the critters, who seemed to be quite attracted to each other. It certainly appeared to me that the young lady had taken a breeding pair to her bosom.