Pet dog takes baby possum for a ride

CAN dogs and possums become good friends? One protective pooch adopted the fur baby after it was found clinging to its back.

IT could have turned into a dog of a day for this uninvited hitchhiker.

But protective pooch Elli was more than happy to give this perky possum a piggyback ride.

Owner Brett Taunt from East Malvern woke one recent morning to find his two-year-old border collie/kelpie cross jumping on his bed as usual.

Then he spotted something moving on her back.

“At first I thought it was a rat!” he said. “But I guess this possum got separated from her mother and chose to cling to Elli.

“My gorgeous dog wasn’t worried about it and was quite calm and if I didn’t know better, I’d reckon Elli was taking up temporary parenthood.”

While the possum looked content to settle in on Elli’s back for the day, Mr Taunt gently picked it up, returned it to a tree frequented by possums, and left it some fruit.

“I thought I’d better separate them just in case the mother possum came back and potentially harmed Elli,” he said.

“It was all the more cute the fact that when I tried to gently get the possum off her back she would run away as if to protect it. She has never run from me ever, even when she knows she’s in trouble!

“Two nights later I saw the possum reunited with its family. And now we see them through the night in the trees occasionally.”

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