Cus-Cus (Tree Kangaroo)

Another example of Papua New Guineans coming to the door with interesting animals.  This time it was at Kaiam and this guy is a Tree Kangaroo.  I think they look a heck of a lot like the Ewoks from Starwars.  This guy became our pet at Kaiam, and last I know he hadn't become stew yet. 

His cage started out underneath the house, but as I was spending the afternoon on the computer I heard this terrible scratching noise coming from just outside the window.  The tree kangaroo had climbed out of his cage and was quickly moving across the firewood siding towards the sac-sac roof, which already has enough leaks in it that an animal larger than a gecko poses quite a threat to it's structural integrity.  The conversation at this point went something like this:

Me: Jeff!... Jeff! Your animal is getting away!
Jeff: Wah? 
Me: Get to the window, I'll pull him down.
Jeff: How? He? The?
Me: Ok (grabbing his tail) he's coming down, catch him.
(at this point, not realizing that the claws of these guys are pretty sharp to hold onto trees, I got my reward for grabbing his tail and he fell ten feet to the ground... but just like a cat landed on all fours)
Me: Grab him!
Jeff: Ack, he'll scratch me!

Ok, so it was really funny at the time, even with a bloody stump.

Later that afternoon the lik-lik cus-cus was built a proper home, and lives happily just outside of reaching distance... for both him and me... ;-)