Save the Possums!

Yes, that's the message you would have heard yelled at you from across the Leith, had you been on Otago's campus in recent days. There were a group of uni students who had literally set up camp on one side of the Leith and chalked the crap out of the sidewalks within a short walking distance of their campground. My favorite was when the realized the correct spelling for opossum (I can only assume) about halfway through their chalkings. This was their brilliant marketing ploy:

(for some reason the blogging gods won't let me leave spaces, so I must adapt...The word STOP actually was written horizontally, but bear with me.)

Save
The
O
Possum!

I know, you're ready and willing to give them every cent you have for this valuable cause. There were also chalk outlines of roadkill opossums all over the sidewalk, which unfortunately can be described only as cute. They looked like opossums in the fetal position taking cute little furry naps.

Apparently the opossum is hated here. I don't know why. I haven't seen many, roadkill or otherwise. Perhaps they see them like I see the gulls. In any case, it was funny to see some people fight for the cause of the little mammal. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be ironic, make some sort of statement or what, but I'm pretty sure that the meeting where they thought up this grand idea involved large quantities of booze.