"My, what a delicious tasting ap..."

Greg Roughan - Green Ideas editor ISSUE 9. Apr14-May14

I imagine those were the last thoughts of the possum that started raiding our work vegetable garden. You know – the garden I slaved over, tenderly raising lettuces so they could be harvested and enjoyed by my colleagues… not devoured in one sitting by a night-time visitor.

The first hint of something furry afoot came when a certain work mate, who thankfully knows a lot more about magazines than she does biology, and who shall remain Kerryless – sorry, nameless – announced that she’d just seen a squirrel run across the car park.

“Honestly, a squirrel,” she said. “A really big one with a fluffy tail”. Then next thing we knew, the garden had been stripped.

A squirrel huh? Hmm.

In a total coincidence I’d just finished researching our article about 1080 and the damage possums do. It’s funny – you read about how, along with rats and stoats they eat 70,000 native birds and eggs every night – and at a rational level you’re appalled. But it wasn’t until one of them broke into MY garden and ate MY lettuces that the blood really started to boil.

There was a short work meeting. Questions were raised. What’s the most humane approach, someone asked. Could our burglar be reformed? And aren’t possums pretty cute?

Much of it was inaudible over the ringing in my ears. A trap was produced and baited with a juicy slice of apple. Night fell over Takapuna…

“My, what a delicious tasting…” SNAP

It’s okay. He’s gone to a better place. Off to the great squirrel tree in the sky...

While having our lettuces stripped to the stalks is a set-back, we won’t be calling it quits. At Green Ideas we’re on a mission to make our office as eco-friendly as we can, with the end goal of achieving ECNZ certification. To follow our progress, sign up to the editor’s monthly e-newsletter.

Greg Roughan
Editor, Green Ideas magazine

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