Australians (read: me) can talk until we’re blue in the face about how the stereotypes are wrong — the wildlife isn’t that extreme and definitely isn’t actively trying to murder you — only for a video like the following one to come along and completely undo all of our hard work.
A girl named Rachel posted a video taken on an island in Queensland, widely considered Australia’s version of Florida, in which she’s in bed, having gone to sleep with the door open only to awaken to an intruder in her bed. A possum, to be precise. Australian possums are smaller and significantly cuter than their American counterparts, but it’s undoubtedly still a shock, with Rachel repeatedly saying, “Oh my god, oh my god,” as the possum just stares at her with its giant eyes.
Commenters were entertained and charmed by the little guy, with many Americans learning in real time about the differences between opossums and possums. One commenter wrote, “Aussie possum looks more cuddly than American possum our possums are ratchet ,” while another, representing the opposing view, argued, “No because a possum is terrifying. An opossum would be chill.” Choose your fighter, I guess.
Many other people joked about the cat distribution system glitching and sending a possum instead, but unlike a friendly stray kitty, you definitely don’t want to keep a possum as a pet. Not because they’re vicious or anything, but because they’re wild animals who don’t deserve to be confined to your home. They do reserve the right to break in every now and then in the middle of the night, however.
In an update video, Rachel explained why she was sleeping with her door open, which is because her room doesn’t have air conditioning and she took a nap with the door open because there was a breeze, not meaning to sleep for as long as she did. She describes waking up to something jumping on her followed by feeling its paws on her body, at which point she woke up, turned her flashlight on and was greeted by a possum who looked just as surprised as anyone that he was in this situation. Fortunately, he left on his own after a few minutes, probably sensing that he had committed a terrible faux pas.
Hopefully he’s learned his lesson and will knock next time.
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