Our wildlife over the past twelve months

Some of our ringtails in care at the moment. In the front is Prue and the eyes you can see are Basil's our third is called Manny.

This is Ruby one of our girls that we had for a short time she is still alive and thriving with a new creche.

My biggest animal and baby in care my hubby Steve.

Our Tawnies day time shot. They are all in a don't care mood as they are not hungry.

Night time shot. All alert and hungry or full.

This is Bertie one of our Brushies due for release soon he now weighs about 1.5kg.

One of our tawnies.

I Am Back

It has been a while since I last posted, not long, nearly a year. Have spent most of the past year working and doing more work. We are still into our wildlife caring but we will be taking a small break of three weeks in April which I think I am in desperate need of, my last break from all the daily routine was in April 2008. We have had many new and varied species in our lives and have been enjoying all the knowledge and the company of our wildlife. I am thinking of changing my blog title to my wildlife, either that or Life in my fifties but as I enjoy writing more about my animals I think that maybe the better option.

At the moment we have some great new little friends to care for five cute ringtails. I have two creches one with 2 males and a female and the other two females. I have made the difficult decision not to do brushtails any more they are cute, cuddly, tenacious and very hard to move on hence my reasoning for not doing them any more. Working nearly full time and caring tends to be a bit difficult at the best of times.

On a different note my eldest daughter gets married in three weeks so there are lots of preparations going on and I am looking forward to the big event. (Even though it means seeing all the ex in laws and out laws). Seriously though even that I don't think will be to bad. I think maybe I am growing.

As each day passes I feel more confident in myself and my relationship with my husband it has taken me a long time to get to where I am. I have started to learn that with time and love comes healing.

Back to Life in my Forties

Have gone off on a tangent lately with the animals but will try to get back on track for a little bit any way.

My eldest daughter Jess has announced that her and her partner are getting married and hope to be having a child soon, given her health history of late, I am over the moon and am hoping things go right for them both for a change. On another side I am working part time and so is Steve, so the question arises how on earth are we going to help pay for the wedding. I am already working six days a week and finances are starting to get tight, with the economic climate as it stands at the moment I am worried.

I thought that when I reached my forties I would be at least be moderately well off considering I have worked most of my life but (Life) sometimes throws you some curve balls. For example divorce, bankruptcy, redundancy, bills etc.

Just hope it all works out. But my ex husband has informed our daughters that he is retiring next year so hopefully he will pay for a change. O My God how bad does that sound (bitter and twisted) . Sorry.

Maybe I should return to writing about my animals at least I get enjoyment from them with their antics and won't come across as getting just plain old and a whiner.

Oh to be happy, young and CAREFREE like my baby animals, they get cleaned and fed and will be released back out into the wild, maybe I should come back as one of them. God that sounds good. No bills, no work, no housework, no stress and no worries.

Do people really care.

I have not written much lately, Life in my forties has had a lot of side tracks. I have come to realise that there are some important things happening aside from being forty. Apart from being tired all the time from working 6 days a week. Many of the wildlife we are getting into care are dying which is not healthy for the environment and I have come to the realisation that progress in the human sense is killing them. My last blog entry was about Hamish a baby brushtail a dog attack since then we have had a female ringtail with baby twins in her pouch all died also due to domestic dog attack. Another brushtail unknown reasons but found with dogs. Several birds some dog and some cat attacks. But one of our latest was human, a snare causing a broken front leg and major damage to his upper front leg resulting in gangrene and having to be put down.

He is in so much pain and scared.

You can see the snare marks around his ankles.

The vet we got him from said he just needed some care for a couple of weeks and could be released. They did not tell us he had a broken leg or give us medication for his wound.

On a brighter note we have little Terry who we have had since Christmas Eve. His injuries were his front leg unknown cause. He is growing and is a pig loves his food and lots of attention. He should be ready for release in a couple of months.

He likes to sit on peoples head just like mum's back only our skulls are not as tough so can be quite painful. Head massage with needles would be an apt description.

His claws are very sharp. But he is oh so adorable.

Hamish R.I.P.

After such a good start my baby Hamish had a rupture in is bladder from the dog attack. After the Vet examined him and Hamish my little boy took a swipe at him (for examining him) I had to leave him to be sedated and checked and hopefully drained so he did not get renal problems. My last visual contact of the little tyke was him looking up at me with his big brown eyes and giving me a lick on the chin and cuddling into my chest. He died on the operating table. Very sad and lots of tears but a least he did not suffer. (God life is hard and unforgiving sometimes)

May my little boy rest in peace.

I love being a wildlife carer but some times it can be very emotionally draining. My next one will hopefully have a better start in this world and a better future. I live in hope of all the animals we get into care.

A day in the life of young Hamish the Brushtail Possum

My Name is Hamish am I cute or what.

Hi my name is Hamish I weigh 300 grams. What a day and night I fell off Mums back and I don't know where she is, she has lost me. After wandering around on the ground for a while these two things which were much bigger than me, huge actually decided they wanted to have a game with me as their toy, I was shaken, stirred and thrown. They had big teeth which I am still wearing the marks of and healing from, then this huge creature even bigger than the two furry four legged creatures picked me up (Oh my god I was so scared). They wrapped me up in a nice soft fluffy thing and took me in this big metal contraption that made lots of noise to a place even further away from my Mum (will she ever find me again, I doubt it?). The new place had lots of new smells, nothing like what I was used to, then after being handled by many of these two legged creatures I was put in a cage so I could finally sleep. When I woke up some new two legged things took me in another metal contraption (Oh boy when is this nightmare going to end?).

This is me thinking about what to write next. Boy is it hard.

Since then which seems ages ago but has only been three days I have lived in a small square basket and have been given lots of milk and some yummy fruit like grated apple and watermelon and strawberries and this horrible foul tasting stuff which I have heard this two legged creatures refer to as medicine and all it does is make me poop lots. But I am feeling so much better my holes in my back are getting better and I don't feel so stiff and I am getting lots of sleep in this nice warm bed.

This is my bed till I get bigger.

I still miss my Mum but I don't think I will ever see her again but my new Foster Mum and Dad are great. They are looking after me.

Painful Weekend

This weekend has been interesting and painful, a friend of Steve's is doing Myopractic (Myopractic is deep muscle techniques and structural integration of the muscles). He visited us on Saturday as I had mentioned to him I was having problems with my neck and sleeping etc. So after a couple of coffees he checked out my aches and pains. He started on the neck and shoulders and found my problem to be a bit more than anticipated, several years ago I was getting out of our car and got my foot hooked in my handbag and fell onto my knee quite heavily bruising the top of my thigh and knee and twisting my back. I had to wait for everyone to stop laughing before they helped me up and even in my pain everyone still thought it was hilarious bottom line I did do some major damage (hence this entry) Tony found so many muscles that I have stopped using that I was nearly in tears with every one that he touched. So for a neck ache he found the muscles in my gluteus maximus (the bum) were tense and sore causing my neck problems.

So after and hour of working on all my muscles (front and back) I have been in pain all weekend and am looking forward (not) to his next visit. (All done for the price of a coffee). What are friends for???

Seriously I am looking forward to his next visit so I can get a full nights sleep with no pain.

So beware what you think is just a minor fall can cause some major issues later. Oh to be getting old and what to look forward to. :)