No, nothing so prosaic as a dog or a cat of some fish in a tank. Last night I spent much time chasing a tree frog around my study, and through the forest of wires and cords under the desk, even across the keyboard of my Mac…

This thing has legs on it like a high jumper and can leave me standing flat-footed any time. It also has suckered toes that enable it to go straight up vertical walls and windows. In the end, I gave up. Twenty-four hours later I have finally managed to shut it in the bathroom with the window open, in the faint hope that it will actually leave.

Earlier today I was sitting in the lounge room when I heard what sounded like a dried leaf being hustled by a wind along the brick-paving outside. Only there wasn’t a wind. I stood up, just in time to see a treeshrew* hauling a large, very dry leaf from the guava tree over the doorstep into the lounge room, which struck me as a strange thing for it to be doing.

Treeshrews are hysterical little creatures that live in a heightened state of terror, so he shot off in a blur of fur the moment I moved. (Which is why I have never managed to get a decent photo of one.)

It wasn’t until later that I discovered she must have been leaf-moving for quite some time because the bottom shelf of my bookcase had a stash of dry leaves hidden behind the books… Just as well I found out before she gave birth.

(*that’s the misnamed creature that doesn’t live in trees {at least ours don’t} and isn’t a shrew, or even a rodent of any kind. It looks a bit like a slim squirrel with a pointed face)