What do you "assign" to the Shire?

[Nerwen]

I assigned brushtail possums to Orthanc a few weeks ago... but now I think I have t assign them to the Shire– at least, the mother-and-child pair who live in the wall behind our stove. They come out at night to eat leftover catfood, plus any fruit I give them. Since their initial running-amok, they've been extraordinarily clean, quite and well-behaved. This is very un-possum like; I think they're trying to keep their new source of food a secret from the other possums.

The "baby" (half-grown, actually) is very friendly– he eats out of my hand and lets me stroke him*. (It only took me a day to tame him).

I fear for the future, though– the cat pretends to be asleep when they're around, but I believe she's biding her time until she can get the little one alone. When I say "possum" to her in the daytime she looks over at the stove and licks her lips...


*Or her. Hard to tell.