One morning DH woke me up and said "there's something in the wardrobe... it's an animal..." meaning because i grew up on farms I had to do the checking and sure enough there was a possum perched on the shelf above my dresses. I ordered DH to open the front door (our bedroom is nearby) and i just grabbed the thing and marched it straight out! If anyone had been passing by our house (it was at about 5.30am) they would have witnessed a mildly amusing vision of me looking quite p*ssed off in my jimmy jams launching a possum out the front door onto the verander! Fortunately i didn't sustain any scratches. DH was very grateful and retold the story to an awestruck female league of office assistants at work the next day. I felt more useful than i had in years... probably on par to giving birth! But possums don't bother me too much, they are quite endearing really. rats? not so endearing...

Renting? For us it's been great, all things considered. Better than home ownership in that we have been able to live for 7 blissfully quiet (great neighbours) in a very large house on a very large block of land very close to the CBD.... totally un-doable on a single income... but now we want a real country experience... a bit more than finding possums in the house