Devils all have distinctively different personalities. Some are timid and very sensitive, others cheeky, hyperactive, cunning, defensive and bad tempered - much like humans really.

The one thing they all have in common though is that they are mischievious and curious and they get themselves into all sorts of trouble.

At Boomajaril, there is never a dull moment as there is always mischief happening somewhere, although mostly in the evening and early hours of the morning. Our 2003 Devils probably gave us the most enjoyment as we were only just beginning to get to know these creatures.

Boxy was a young male devil who came to Boomajaril at Christmas 2003. I was there to visit my parents so I got to see the whole relationship develop. It was an almost instant trust between the Devil and us. He almost immediately took the food from our hands and would always thank us with a bark. So how did we discover Boxy and how did he get his name?

Well one night we heard banging and crashing on the back verandah. We raced over to the window to see a box moving around the verandah knocking everything over. Eventually the box fell off to reveal a rather bewildered Devil. The obvious name to call him was boxy.

Boxy was a very smart and insistant Devil. He was only one of two Devils who came up on the back verandah knowing he would get fed without having to compete with the other Devils who all congregated on the front verandah. Boxy was also a climber and it wouldn't be unusual for us to open the door to feed him and find ourselves eye to eye with him as he clung to the door.

Climbing the door lead Boxy to a discovery - How to open the door. Two o'clock in the morning and Boxy had come late for a snack. There was no food left for us to feed him so we ignored him, hoping he would give up and go off and hunt again. Our insistant Boxy had other ideas.

The screen door slammed shut with an almighty bang, which prompted me to get up and investigate. Armed with a torch I shone the light out onto the verandah and was absolutely fascinated by what I saw.

Boxy was climbing the door, pulling down the handle and, with him still attached, the door would swing open. He would then jump down run up and slam the door shut. He did this about four times and I believe it was an attempt to get our attention or he was just enjoying the ride can't really be sure, however it shows that Devils are not the dumb creatures we are lead to believe.

Boxy unfortunately died on our verandah. It was a terrible event for my father who was home alone as my mother was visiting me in Western Australia. Boxy was getting excited as normal at the front door and when my father went off to get some food for him, he heard a thump and came back to find Boxy dead in front of the door. We don't know whether he climbed the door and fell or whether he had a heart attack. Either way is it was a devastating event, you can't help but get very attached to these animals.

Devils are natural born thieves and will take and eat anything that has any sort of biological scent or blood on it. At Boomajaril you cannot leave shoes or clothes or anything really outside at Devil level anytime of day. It only takes a few seconds and it will be gone. My parents good work shoes are made of leather as well as their slippers which are lambswool. Although it doesn't really matter what the shoe is made of because the smell of your persperation would have permiated the shoe making it attractive to the devil.

At times without thinking they will take off their muddy shoes and go inside. When they would come out again to continue work they find they are one shoe short. What is fascinating is that the Devil always takes the left shoe. Which means we can't even match odd shoes up because they are all right feet. It would seem our devils have a left foot fetish.

We know that Devils eat a lot of these shoes ect, as we find cloth and other materials in their scats. This has made us more vigilant in how we store rubbish and our belongings to prevent the devils from ingesting them and making them sick.

Story by Debbie Thoy