There were two dead in the old tank during the worst of the drought, and one year, I saw one drinking at the bird bath just before dark.

More than a decade ago, an antechinus came into our kitchen and was promptly killed by our terrier Puff.

I cried, as she was a female with extremely small babies; I was mortified my dog killed native wildlife.

Puff has since crossed the rainbow bridge, and our King Charles cavalier remains.

Murderous intent is not in this dog’s make-up – her favourite foods are strawberry tops and sliced cucumber. 

We have had an antechinus living in the kitchen for a month now, and Leela has barely noticed.

The agile antechinus is part of the Dasyuridae, the so-called carnivorous marsupials. This family includes the Tasmanian Devil, quolls, the brush-tailed phascogale (which are larger than the agile antechinus) and the tiny ninguai that are smaller.

The smaller dasyurids have an extraordinary mating strategy in which all the males die after mating season – leaving only females and young in the population. The males only live for one year.

In most bush houses and gardens in the Wombat Forest, we have a mix of introduced black rats, agile antechinus and possibly native bush rats.

To tell the difference between a black rat and a native bush rat, look at the tail.

The black rat’s tail is twice as long as its body and is nearly naked, almost segmented like a skinny earthworm.

The bush rat’s tail is shorter than its body and quite furry.

Warning: the cuteness factor does not help you distinguish between these two species – some black rats are simply adorable with their fine whiskers, soulful eyes and little white chests.

Rodents and antechinus can be distinguished by their very distinctive gaits.

Rodents, whether native or introduced, run in a smooth continuous motion, kind of like a horse in a gallop.

Antechinus move in a very different way – it is staccato and super fast, a kind of coordinated hopping gait that moves across the ground or log like a horizontal hop.

The only other animals I have seen move like this are possums and bandicoots – also marsupials.

The antechinus in our kitchen reminds me of Spider-Man the way she can run horizontally on a vertical wall.

Scat identification is a fun hobby – it is all about textures, and knowing a bit about the animal’s diet.

Black rats and bush rats are omnivorous – indeed black rats will eat nearly anything.

Their scats are hard, cylindrical pellets that are pretty uniform in size and shape, often with a little point at one end.

When you break them open they are compacted and simply break in half. Mouse scats are similar in texture, just smaller.

Agile antechinus, on the other hand are insectivores – they eat mostly insects, with hard chitinous exoskeletons.

The antechinus has long, pointed jaws full of many sharp teeth which chew their insect prey up very finely.

So, when you pick up an antechinus scat and crumble it slightly between thumb and forefinger, the whole thing breaks up into a zillion tiny brown fragments which may have a bit of iridescence.

In scat parlance, they are known as “friable”.

Antechinus scats may be cylinders with rough broken off ends, or even curled Mr Whippy style scats.

If the scats are friable and full of insect fragments but tiny and in great numbers, you could be looking at bat scats, as microbats also have an insect diet.

The antechinus leaves scats in the shed and across the woodpile, and unfortunately across our kitchen – seeming to drop them freely as they scamper about – whereas the black rats seems to save scats for depositing in secret dark places such as under tin sheets in the garden and, notoriously, in car engines.

The agile antechinus is one of the most common animals in the Wombat Forest. 

It is the star of the Wombat Forest camera trapping program run by Wombat Forestcare and the VNPA.

If you live in the drier parts of Hepburn Shire, such as Yandoit or Clydesdale, you would have the agile antechinus’ larger and fluffier cousin, the very pretty yellow-footed antechinus.