Last night was rather eventful at the cat house. The possum turned up, as often happens, but the raccoons arrived while it was eating, and they had a bit of a disagreement:
It was a busy time (around 22:22, aka 10:22 PM), which I saw on my iPad cam app. A cat amazingly slept through it (or pretended to do so), while the possum growled and lunged at the raccoons:
Here’s a couple more shots of the encounter:
The raccoons retreated, and the possum continued eating.
A few hours later, the possum visited again, and this time invaded the shelter, where two cats were sleeping. They quickly evacuated:
Fortunately that encounter didn’t scare the cats off; they were back later, and cleaned each other then slept for a number of hours:
Breakfast time queue:
I really hope the new food dispenser will let me eliminate the excess food, so the possum and raccoons stop coming. Makes me regret not building an elevated feeder and shelter.
Those possums are different from ours, aren’t they? Are they marsupials?
It sounds like you could put the cat house back nearer your house, which might deter the invaders. Or hang it from a tree. Or sit it on a platform, like you have the bees.
Yes, American possums are nasty creatures. Here’s a link comparing them: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/opossum-vs-possum/
The cat house is fairly heavy, so can’t easily be moved. It might be possible to raise it up, but not easily.