Children
“What was that?” I slowed down as I drove past something on the road. I was on my way in to the country town where I worked at a school in Queensland, Australia. Amongst the tall gum trees and leafy wattles lining the paddocks, were lots of native animals going about their day. Unfortunately, one of those animals looked like they had gotten too close to the road this morning.
I stopped the car and backed up to a greyish, furry mound on the bitumen surface. As I got out of the car, a couple of black crows flew away from the lump, cawing in annoyance at being disturbed.
Sure enough - it was a dead wallaby, probably a red-necked wallaby by the look of its markings and colour. It was sad to see animals getting killed by the traffic, but it was always good practice to stop and check. Sometimes the animals weren’t actually dead, and could be helped by a quick trip to the vet.
This wallaby was definitely dead, and I could tell it was a female. I could see a pouch, and even some black claws poking out, belonging to a joey. These claws actually moved a bit! Could it be still alive?
Bending over and gently pulling open the skin of the pouch, I could see an almost bald wallaby baby, or joey. Its eyes were big and bulgy and it looked quite skinny.
“Oh… Poor little thing!” I felt sad for the tiny creature that had just lost its mother.
I knew that it was quite young, as joeys don’t leave the pouch until they have grown all their fur and can feed themselves sufficiently. “Let’s get you out of there and into something safer.”
In the car was an old towel, which I planned to wrap the joey in, after prising it out of the pouch. It scrabbled and clawed, not wanting to leave its mum and the familiar, cosy surroundings of the pouch. But the joey didn’t know that if it was left alone, it would surely die of starvation… if didn’t become dinner for some other wild animal first.
“You’ll be all right,” I whispered. I didn’t know how long the joey had been there, but it probably was getting cold without the energy of its mother. I wrapped the towel snugly around the joey, and then got back into the car, with the bundle on my lap. It would be safe there.
Before driving off, though, there was something that needed to be done. Getting the phone out of my bag, I dialled a number.
“Broadwater State School, Judy speaking,” the school secretary on the other end said.
“Hi Judy, it’s Susan Johnstone here. I’m running late today. I’ve found a joey on the road; it looks very tiny. Can you let Ruth Bott know?”
Mrs Bott was the principal of Broadwater School and her hobby was looking after injured birds and wildlife before returning them to their homes in the bush.
The phone was handed over. “Hi Susan, Ruth Bott speaking. You’ve got a joey?”
“Yes. It’s very tiny; it doesn’t even have much fur at all. Is it too young to survive without its mother?” I patted the bundle on my lap and hoped for the best.
“If it’s got its eyelids formed, then it’s old enough.”
I thought about the eyes I’d seen and said, “Yes, it has eyelids!”
“Good,” said Mrs Bott. “I’ve got some formula and heating pads at school. It can snuggle up with one of the other joeys in the basket.”
“Okay- I’ll bring it in. I won’t be too long.”
I smiled and thought of the care that would be lavished on this little orphan. All the students in Mrs Bott’s class helped out with bottle-feeding of the baby marsupials which stayed in a corner of the room during school hours. No animal there would ever be deprived of attention!
When I arrived at the school, I brought the joey in and Mrs Bott examined it. The claws and legs had bleeding scratches from the crows that had been attacking it when I had found it. These were attended to, and the joey was given a warm bottle of marsupial formula. Wildlife carers discovered years ago that regular human baby formula can make a baby kangaroo or wallaby sick, so a special blend of milk has been created for them.
The children gathered around to see the new addition to their classroom nursery. “You’ll have to give him a name, since you found him,” Mrs Bott told me.
“Hmmm… how about Fred – for ‘Fred-bare’, since he’s so bald?” I suggested. (Thread-bare carpets are often very worn and have lost a lot of their fluffiness.)
Some of the children wanted to name him ‘Lucky’ because of his narrow escape from death.
So it turned out that the joey had two names – Lucky and Fred, and he grew stronger and bigger, day by day. His scratches gradually healed and his fur started to grow thick, so that he looked like a cute and cuddly wallaby. He was no longer thread-bare! His fur colouring became definite and he developed a reddish cape around his neck and shoulders, with the rest of him light and medium shades of grey.
It wasn’t long before he was able to crawl out of his little sleeping bag in the wash-basket (which was his bed) and explore his surroundings. In the classroom, he was able to move himself around like a rabbit - leaning his forepaws on the carpet, and then bouncing his large hind legs up to meet them. Then he’d lean forward again, and pull his hind legs up again. His long, thick tail acted as an anchor, which helped him to keep balance.
As Fred grew bigger still, he could venture outside on the grass, and hop properly, with strong bounds. He ate green grass and nibbled on the seed-heads of some long grasses. He could even lap water from a shallow dish. He made friends with the other joeys who were older, and almost ready to be independent.
One day, Fred was big enough to make the transition to independent living himself. Mrs Bott explained to me that another wildlife carer who lived nearby, took the older marsupials to stay at her place. She had lots of bushland around her home, and as the animals gained confidence with their foraging skills, and grew familiar with the area, they gradually roamed further and further away. Sometimes she could recognise her adopted ‘children’ as they came close to the house again, and she was sure that they were living a healthy and happy life out in the bush.
Fred became one of those wallabies who moved out to the transitional wildlife carer’s home. We all were a little sad to see him go, but glad at the same time, knowing that he would be gaining a chance at a new life of freedom. Farewell, little Fred!
______________________________
What can I learn from this story?
"Lord, you have made so many things! How wisely you made them all! The earth is filled with your creatures... All of them depend on you to give them food when they need it. You give it to them, and they eat it; you provide food, and they are satisfied." Psalm 104: 24, 27, 28 (Good News Bible)
Sometimes God sends people to provide for animals. We can be on God's team and help to care for creation.
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