Gloria the Cockatoo

Last week we took into care a cockatoo that had been clipped by a car. No major damage to the car I have been told and no major damage to the cockatoo which we have named Gloria. She is a beautiful bird but she has a beak which can crack walnuts and fingers so I found out on my first encounter with this beauty. I silly me was very game and decided to remove her from the vets cage and put her into ours with just a pair of gloves and a towel. Not a good idea I think to even go near a cockatoo and their beak without a suit of armour is a stupid move. Gloria came close to totally deadening any nerves I have in my finger. She got hold and was not going to let go. The swelling and bruising is now starting to ease after a week.

Steve and I have decided big parrots are not our calling. We have had to get Gloria out every day to treat her wing and let her have some exercise and we have learnt how to do this with out ever touching her. Never again will I handle a cockatoo with out welding gloves and a sheet of metal between us.

Gloria telling and showing us who is boss. She is.

Oh What A Day

Today I had a moment when I wished the ground would have opened up and swallowed me. Have you ever had a day when you have things go from hectic to stupid.

All my life I have been brought up around cars and the mechanics of them. My Dad is an ex cabbie who did all the maintenance on his cabs for the 25 years he was an owner driver and I used to love hanging out in the garage watching and helping when I could and Dad taught me well. I knew just about everything to look for when something happened to one of my cars and how to fix it.

Well today after a an extremely hectic day at work I went down to the car I am borrowing at the moment as Steve is away and has ours and it wouldn't start, all thought process went out the window, I presumed I had a flat battery as that was the symbol on the dash, so I rang my daughters partner who is part owner of the car with her I am borrowing and checked a few details and found they were part of the RACQ our road service here and they were. So I called and a lovely man from RACQ came out and checked the battery which he said was fine, then he got into the car and turned to me and said it would normally start if you put into park. At that moment I wished for the ground to open and swallow me.

I then came home to find my tilt-a-door wire broken and not being able to open it.

Oh what a day.

Home Alone

For many years now there has always been someone living at home and now the house is bare. I think the old saying empty nest is coming into play for me at the moment. My youngest has left home and now there is just Steve and I (and Steve is in Armidale for UNI residential so there is just me) god it is lonely. But I still have our five possums, four lorikeets, four chickens, a dog and cat to keep me company and busy (but none of them can hold a decent conversation). I have listened to music (Steve took all the good stuff to Armidale) so even that is running low with what is left and TV is so boring. So after a long time of not writing in my blog because I have been so busy I now find I have time.

I have taken some pictures of our little darlings. Below is a picture of Pinky who weighed 100 grams on entering this home and is now well over 200 grams ( and no is she not eating a worm it is a part of a leaf as she is vegetarian) and the little head is Yoda who came into care weighing 50 grams there is another photo below of him and he now weighs over 160 grams.






Gollum above is my problem possum not wanting to eat but not wanting to give up and neither will I.


This is Yoda was 50 grams now budda. Previous photos in my blog show just how little he was. He is doing really well.

I have had so many ups and downs lately I look to the future and pray that it is brighter. Who ever said that life in your forties is great needs to be ArGGGGGhhhhh, ( shot) maybe some days are good and some not. I suppose that is life whether it is your forties or when ever.

Our Freezer is full

Sad to say but our freezer is full. Why you might ask is that sad, usually people have food in their freezer so if it full it is usually a good thing but sad to say our freezer is filled with dead birds waiting for burial. Our past weekend was not good on the wildlife front we did a couple of rescues and the fate of the ones up for rescue was not a happy one.

Steve and I take the good with the bad and try to deal with it as best we can. But never the less our freezer at this point is full.

Dreaming

I feel like I never had six months off to study. I am back to working in my locked office with no windows. I enjoy the work the days fly by but I would ultimately love to be working in the environment and with animals, maybe that day will come. I am sure everyone has dreams of their dream job but reality is you need to earn the almighty dollar to survive and the job you have is better than none.

As wildlife carers I get to dabble in my dreams. Our babies and some of our rescues.

Gollum brushtail 100grams in our care.

Pelican rescue

Duckling rescue

Our ringtails in our care.

All our animals in care hopefully will survive and be returned to the wild.

Three new babies

This week Steve and I have become the proud foster parents of three new little ringtails. One is a little boy that weighs in at 60grams and two little girls. The little boy we have called Yoda and the two little girls are called Pinky and Perky. The girls weigh in at 80grams and 100grams.

This is Yoda he is very adventurous and so tiny . He is also butt ugly but we love him. Once he gets bigger he will look like the little girls he just needs more hair and to fill out .


This is Pinky who is very shy and bites like crazy and is always pulling her blanket over her head.

Acute Pancreatitis

Well the last couple of days have not been much fun. On Thursday night after dinner with my eldest daughter, her boyfriend and Steve, I was sitting on our back patio talking to my daughter when I started to get this pain, within about 10 minutes I was in extreme agony I could not get comfortable and the pain wasn't showing any sign of easing. So after trying every possible position to get comfortable and the pain getting worse my family decided to call an ambulance. The ambulance guys were wonderful and gave me this green tube to suck on so by the time we got to the hospital the pain had eased.

Emergency was really busy so I was there for some time before I saw a doctor but the bottom line is after three blood tests and a CT scan it was shown that I had acute pancreatitis which they said can be quite serious. The blood test shows a thing called the lipase, for a normal lipase it should be under 70 my reading was 1750 so they were quite worried. When I was discharged today my reading was 84 so they said I was improving and was right to come home.

I am extremely grateful to my family as I was in so much pain I could not think straight let alone get myself to the hospital.

When I got home today I did a google search on acute pancreatitis and below is what I found.

Acute pancreatitis usually begins with pain in the upper abdomen that may last for a few days. The pain may be severe and may become constant—just in the abdomen—or it may reach to the back and other areas. It may be sudden and intense or begin as a mild pain that gets worse when food is eaten. Someone with acute pancreatitis often looks and feels very sick. Other symptoms may include

• swollen and tender abdomen
• nausea
• vomiting
• fever
• rapid pulse

Severe cases may cause dehydration and low blood pressure. The heart, lungs, or kidneys may fail. If bleeding occurs in the pancreas, shock and sometimes even death follow.

I don't particularly like the last two sentences.