This is my third attempt over a period of four weeks that I’ve tried to write something to go on this page. The first attempt was so boring I fell asleep as I was proof reading it (and spilt my wine all over me). The second alternated between being too sad, unreasonably angry and far too overemotional to be posted. Reading back the draft, not posting that one was a good decision as I really don’t want to invite the blokes in the white coats to collect me, well not just yet anyhow. So now here I am, I’m going to attempt to be even tempered, friendly and seemingly well balanced for this particular blog post (the well balanced might be a bit of a stretch though) Eh em…. Over the past month I’ve lost two kangaroo orphans; my little snake bite victim Yanaba and my beautiful red kangaroo girl Tahdita. Tahdita died after a neighbour’s dog roamed on to my land and worried her from outside the roo pen until she broke her neck trying to get away. I arrived on the scene only minutes too late to save her from the dog harassment. Yanaba needed to be euthanized a mere five hours after that on the same morning. Sadly the little Aussie battler developed more complications as a result of the snake bite and I felt it was time to let her go. I can’t describe the heartbreak that caused me at the time and the sadness I feel now. As a result of all this I’ve put my latest work ‘Joey’s First Sunset’ on hold whilst I work on a portrait of Tahdita (click to see preview at bottom of 'For Sale' page. Funnily enough, being able to depict her as I always envisaged during the many months she was in care…. wild and free in the Australian outback, helps just a little. Anyway, moving on… I have had a new group of orphans recently, since it’s the time of year when the grass goes brown everywhere except the sides of the road, so subsequently our Roo Mums are killed by passing vehicles. The new bubs comprise of two red kangaroos named Matisse and Morgan and two grey kangaroos named Monet and Mozart. Three of them have only just learnt how to walk and hop and have seriously caused a lot of laughter around the place. Kangaroo stacks have been a regular occurrence as have chin slides, somersaulting off steps and falling into water bowls. There is also a lot of finger, bag and ear sucking going on between bottle feeds. All are distinctly different, Mozart has the most beautiful hands, is very pretty for a boy and extremely quite. Monet on the other hand, misses out rather a lot in the ‘looks’ department but is outgoing and adventurous. So much so, he can click his heels when he does a bit of a run. Although he does often forget to put his feet back down in his glee, ending up in the aforementioned chin slide but it’s no mean feet (sorry about that) when one has only just learnt how to stand up on ski like feet. Morgan is the smallest of all and absolutely detests being kissed between the ears and hates being picked up out of his bag and placed on the floor for exercise time. He comes out like a leggy Joe Bugner (who? ... never mind). Matisse is the furriest red I've ever seen, but oh my, he is absolutely beautiful, both in nature and looks. He also has no objection to being kissed between the ears, is very independent, the oldest by 20 days and will be a very big male kangaroo when he grows up.
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I’ve been musing today……….. errrrmmmm …… Who actually uses that term these days? Musing what a wonderful word especially when you know that it means “to think about something in a deep and serious or dreamy and abstracted way” Actually after reading the meaning of the word again I think maybe there should be two different words. Deep and serious is a pole apart from dreamy and abstracted isn’t it? Anyway, I was deeply and seriously thinking about the term ‘creatures of habit’. A lot of us don’t like things changing do we really? Not only big things, but a fair amount of small stuff too irks us if it isn’t how we expect it to be. We are humans and so it isn’t surprising, then there are our dogs, we all know they are much the same in that aspect especially when its meal or daily walk time. But what about other Aussie critters? Earlier this morning I, apparently had the audacity, to change the dish I usually serve the macropod pellets in (like guinea pig food but for kangaroos). Seriously, you would have thought I’d introduced a Tasmanian Devil into the pen judging by the reaction it caused within the kangaroo ranks. Then, later that same morning I was walking around the Billabong Sanctuary near Townsville with an amazing young woman, totally dedicated and passionate about the animals in her care at the Billabong. She was telling me how she preferred raising young Boyd’s Forest Dragons as opposed to the ‘really emotional’ frilled lizards. Yes, even I did a bit of a double take when she said that and had to ask her what she meant. Apparently Frilled Necked Lizards throw a complete wobbler if you move anything in their pen and even sulk for a few days afterwards. Gotta say I was fairly surprised about this information, who’d ever think that, not me that’s for sure. I’m so busy trying to convince people that Kangaroos have species traits as well as individual personalities it didn’t occur to me that reptiles would be the same. Apart from musing around the place I’ve also been involved with some fairly critical creature care. A little Wallaroo called Yanaba that I’ve had since she was furless was bitten by a Brown Snake. Now, I can’t truthfully use the phrase ‘she was lucky’ here because if she was a rational being she might not agree, but the snake bit her on a bony part of her ankle. She’s only a mere 3kg and its venom rather than killing her paralysed her from the waist down. In the last five weeks we have slowly progressed from her only able to lie uselessly on the floor with just movement in her upper body, to her managing multiple shuffles toward me with encouragement. When left alone she is a bright happy little soul and continues to progress in her movements and take more steps each and every day. A full recovery is expected, but my goodness her temper control diminishes as I subject her to light physiotherapy. In fact I might go as far as to say, any Brown Snake she ever meets in the future better watch out!
In fact I think the Frilled Lizard may even find her to be a challenge. I’ve been ridiculously busy for the last couple of months, paid work took a back seat and I put maximum efforts into a small part of helping to organise the 8th Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation Conference here in Townsville. It was the first time the bi-annual conference has been held in a regional centre and wildlife carers flew in from every state in the country attending the four day event to listen to presenters renown throughout Australia for their expertise in wildlife rehabilitation as well as learn and network with other carers. Our Townsville wildlife volunteer team of conference organisers pulled off an outstanding event and we had wonderful feedback from the 200+ delegates attending. Not only did I learn about things I didn’t even know I needed to know, but I met some absolutely lovely people. Apart from that I’ve discovered that I have a new talent. It all started when I tried to get an artist to paint a picture of Chablis for me, this is the dog of my heart, who died over three years ago. He did such an awful rendition that I thought I might try to do something better. Then I started looking at my kangaroo photographs and wondered if there was a more artistic way to portray them. Two years later a couple of my friends suggested that they might be good enough to sell. Yeah right, I thought. As the conference approached I was encouraged to pull my stuff together, book a trade table and have a bash at selling my wares. Eventually, the day dawned for the conference, I packed my prints together with a good book to read whilst I sat behind my trade table with an absolute conviction no one else would think the prints any good. Oh boy oh boy, was I in for a surprise……… The first morning, before I could finish unpacking my box of prints I had sold NINE! Unbelievable………..by the afternoon break I had sold out of my stock. You have to keep in mind, I’ve actually never sold anything before, or had a trade table. I was absolutely hopeless, I’m sure startled deer show a lot more initiative than I managed to show the four days I was there. I stood there stressed out of my head, trying to cope with lots of questions, feebly attempting to enjoy conversations with some lovely carers, handing out change and wondering how I was going to get more prints at such short notice. That day I managed to perform ‘Bridget Jones’ type scenarios, that I’d never accomplished at any other time in my long professional career as an engineer. In one instance I walked around the hotel conference foyer with a great big trailing length of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe. THEN…. Oh my god, oh my god even worse……… I walked to my trade table with the hem of my skirt tucked into its waistband. At the time I was talking my printer, Elissa to order more copies and blurted out over the phone in a panic what I'd just discovered as I was sharply ducked behind my easel to pull everything out to its proper place. Would you believe I was originally headed off towards the coffee and biscuits being handed out for morning break. It was only the breezy sensation going on around my hindquarters that alerted me that something was slightly amiss. I keep imagining........(sweating at 2am in the morning) me drinking coffee and eating biscuits with my jockey undies on show (SEE! not M&S therefore I must be an honorary Australian). I've spent all these years just thinking that stuffing skirts into undies was a made up scenario and that no one ever really did it. Talk about wake up call...........Phew! NOW what do I have to look forward to? Farting in public?
Despite all that, I’ve decided that I might like to progress this new talent of mine, doesn’t matter that I’ve found it a bit late in life, doesn’t matter I won’t be able to give up my day job. What matters is that it touched a few of the wildlife carer hearts that bought my work. I was astounded by some of the reactions to my pictures and loved the stories they told me of their orphan babies. A bit like that advert for … is it master card or access? PRICELESS. There are some special people out there my friends, and their love and dedication for ‘our’ Aussie wildlife is absolutely boundless, they put me to shame. I am so very honoured that they loved my Aussie Critter wildlife prints and it made all the stress, all the embarrassment and those four sleepless nights totally worthwhile. |
AuthorSamantha "I'm a person who feels I live in paradise and truly love Australia after immigrating here in 2003. I work as a foreign exchange trader, live with my true soul mate, husband Albert. I have a passion for Aussie wildlife and became a registered wildlife carer in 2005 and can say I feel truly privileged to be able to raise and rehabilitate orphan wallaby/kangaroo joeys. I love these creatures with my heart and soul. My dream is to be able to help struggling volunteer wildlife carers, financially, so that they can do what they do best without worrying how to pay the next vet bill" Archives
December 2018
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