It comes so easily to say being in the country it is about ‘getting away from it all’. But after a week cut off from the Internet, I found I missed being in touch with the world & friends in far off places. I do like getting away from the distractions of the city – but it’s better with connectivity and a good coffee machine!
This week also bought one of the most magical country experiences, a visit to a house full of rescued wildlife. I’d heard about it from the local motel owner who, amazingly, had performed an emergency caesarian on a dead wombat. He cut open the stomach of the mother and there neatly inside, compact, was the baby. He pulled it out gently and took to the couple down the road, who look after motherless and injured animals with a little help from WIRES (Australian Wildlife Rescue Organisation).
grass attached to the pouch, so that she has something to nibble on
Entering their home, past some excited dogs and a collection of beautifully carved didgeridoos,out into the front room. There she was, Jess, a delicate little kangaroo in a make shift pouch, not yet 12 months old.
bought out of his trunk…
… the littlest wombat
Then the little wombat of the emergency caesarian was bought out of his box in his blanket. Later, like a magic trick, another wombat emerged from a trunk – I asked if there were small wildlife in all the containers in the room…
The second littlest wombat
Then outside to the corrugated tin enclosure of three older wombats, teenagers. These were rambunctious fellows- two came barreling over and tried to eat my sneakers, the third hung back, hissing, not in a mean way, more like he wanted to join in the fun but had to make his point. Apparently wombats are know as the “Bulldozers of the Bush”. They have a hard plate on their backside and like having it scratched. The effect is instantaneous – the wombat collapsing down on the floor, all limbs splayed, immobile and blissed out.
The hissy wombat
even more wombats were hiding somewhere in here
When wombats get older and are ready to go into the bush, the carers have to treat them aggressively to make them want to leave and be with other wombats not humans. Like the story of Mowgli, they have to depart the world they have come to know, with difficulty, to go off with their own kind.
This post made me shed a tear… how wonderful of that couple to care for the animals and check out the local motel owner…. just endearing.
The kangaroo in a make shift pouch… just adorable and what you wrote about wombats and Mowgli… btw, the jungle book is probably one of my all time favourites!
Beautiful post!!
A week without internet connection…. difficult but probably very healing:)) x
Precious babes! How very difficult to read that the handlers must – in the end – be unkind, for the betterment of the animal’s reintroduction to the wild! sad…
Very brave folks!
Agreed, it would be hard to be tough on the wombats after caring for them. I think that this couple is wonderful for the work they do.