I am with child
Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 10:25PM It can happen so quick.
One morning you wake up on a cloudy day by the beach. After combing the shores for the twentieth time... restlessness sets in. So you hop in the van to visit your sexy mate Tony at the visitor's centre. All amused with plaits in your hair and a carton load of Coffee Chill you ask baffling questions of Tony like "What does it mean that a turtle is my totem?" and you attempt to help the tourists by offering them your recently vacated camping site for free! Then mid sentence, Tony gives you your first child.
It was something I'd always hoped would happen in Exmouth. But I thought it would be planned - after some research and investigation. Instead, I was just given this baby, unexpectedly, to nurse.
His mother was killed only hours earlier.
So with a day full with nothing, I excitedly took on the task of delivering baby to CARE group volunteer Sue whose home has become a haven for joey's who have lost their mothers.
I mean, really, her home is a haven for joeys. Less so a haven for her slightly disgruntled husband. As you can imagine, it's like minimum 7 babies, all year round... feeding, pooing, jumping babies!
These babes need lots of time and CARE relies on volunteers and donations. So I'd like to work out a way to encourage travellers to help out (properly) for one day when they visit Exmouth. Seeing as slowing down on the roads isn't working! The edges are splattered with roo bodies. And many have babies in their pouches...
This little fella is really crook. He has pneumonia. May not make it.
I tried my best to send him healing energy built up from days of meditating in the bush...
This duck was also handed over to Sue. Well, he's actually a HUGE bird whose breed name escapes me. But he can't walk due to some damage he sustained from a recent storm in Exmouth.
So I offered to help with the countless care duties.
I swept up pellets of poop, which were placed on the vege patch like slow release fertiliser.
I sewed kangeroo pouches out of second hand tshirts.
I hung washed ones out to dry.
And got some lessons in feeding and nursing.
Most of all I enjoyed the way the roos have a good old butt scratch when they get out of their pouches.
I like it when days evolve this way, when you step out with no plan but with a happy spirit and silliness! And you get thrown into opportunities quite wonderfully.
[current mood] Lindt Caramel Crunch & Grey Nomads Cackling in the Caravan Park
animals, travel in Inspiration
Reader Comments (3)
I'll be in Exmouth in about a week and a half for a few days (well, in the area). I'd LOVE to help out for a day (and have a coffee or so with you too!)
Email me!
Ok, slightly more specific, think I'll be there about 11 or 12 July.
Hmmm sexy hey??? Talk like that will get you everywhere!!!
I think the duck is a giant petrel??? Think someone is getting rather attached to this way of life up here...huh huh??
T
x
What a beautiful and humane thing you and everyone is doing for these animals. I am melting here from the beauty and tenderness of this post.