A Texas woman was understandably taken aback when she discovered that a possum had somehow made its way into her home and took up residence in her artificial Christmas tree. According to a local media report, the wild incident occurred last week when Brett Ingram heard a peculiar sneeze erupt from the tree that she had set up ten days earlier. Although she initially assumed that one of her pets was responsible for the strange sound, that assessment quickly changed when she “heard it again, louder, along with some other animal-like noises.” Now curious as to the source of the sound, Ingram approached her Christmas tree and spotted “a giant, breathing ball of gray fur” that smelled “horrible.”

Ingram took a closer look and realized that the critter in question was a possum that had managed to get inside her house and crawled up into the faux Christmas tree. Detailing the situation as it unfolded in a video that has since gone viral, she frantically lamented that “I don’t know how it got in here, I don’t leave my doors open. Somebody help.” Ingram eventually set about trying to extricate the possum from the tree, which proved to be a rather difficult task as the animal would not budge when she pulled on it with gloved hands.

After several attempts at removing the critter from the tree, it finally released its grasp and fell to the ground, which kicked off a strange showdown wherein Ingram reportedly chased the animal around her home for an astounding 30 minutes as it took refuge under various pieces of furniture while she was in hot pursuit. The bizarre battle came to an end when she was eventually able to corner the creature and “tackle him like an NFL football player.” Ingram subsequently released the undoubtedly frightened animal back into the wild, musing that “as an animal lover, I probably would have kept it if it didn’t smell so horrid.”