Roo in Distress

Earlier in the week, I had a phone call from my friend Muriel.  I think you would term Muriel a godly matron with a great sense of fun, and of the ridiculous.  She is in her seventies, and has several health issues, which slow her down physically, but certainly not mentally.  She is determined to get as much out of life as she can.  She lives out of town, and her place had been in the path of the fires.  We talked about her experiences, and compared notes.  The area where she lives had been settled by her ancestors back in the 1800s, and was a community of several houses, on separate small holdings.

When the fire started it was across the river from her, and around the same distance from her as it was from town.  In the early stages it was watch and wait, and see which way the wind would blow it.  Of course, they were hoping that the river would act as a firebreak.  However, it didn’t, and started to come towards them.  Muriel of course was watching the smoke, but didn’t realise how close the fire was to her until she found two policemen in her house.  One had come through the front door, and the other through her bedroom window.  This gave her quite a shock to say the least, having a young handsome policeman in her bedroom, and she said she was so surprised she nearly wet her pants!  However both lovely young policeman gave her no choice; they had come to evacuate her, and told her what to pack and got her out of there as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile the fire fighters were at a neighbour’s property, doing their best to save it, and the fire moved on to Muriel’s before they had a chance to get there.  At this stage it was roaring along.  It headed straight for her house but just as it got there it changed direction and missed her house.  It burned out fences, and her tank stands (her tanks of water survived), but her house and sheds were safe.  The firefighters arrived in time to mop up.  When she was eventually allowed to go home, she said she burst into tears when she saw all the paddocks  turned to ash and a lot of the trees burnt.

After we had discussed all this, she got to the real reason for her call.  She had been adopted by a wallaroo with burnt feet.  She found him sheltering in her shed, and also wandered round under some of her remaining trees and shrubs, and was nibbling what was left of her grass.  She had a large tub of water there, and he drank from that.  She was wondering what to do with him, and thought any attempt to catch him would cause him stress.  I agreed with that assumption, and told her I’d contact someone who knew more about burned animals than me.  In the meantime, I suggested she continue as she was doing.

After we finished our conversation, I rang the other carer, John.  Of course he wasn’t home, so I left a message, but an hour or so later he rang back.  I explained the situation, and he rang Muriel, and then went out to see the roo himself.  The roo seemed to be getting around slowly;  his feet were indeed injured, but seemed in reasonable condition.  He assumes he was injured during the fires, and seeing it has been over two weeks since then, and he was coping with his problems, he was optimistic about his chances.  He stressed to Muriel though that should his condition worsen, to let him know straight away and he would reassess him, and put him out of his misery should it come that that.  We both hoped it wouldn’t…wallaroos are tough fellows, and his attitude would go a long way to see him recover.

John told me that he had had to go to a meeting in Mudgee the night before, and had come across an echidna strolling down the centre line of the main road.  He was in no hurry, and obviously felt the road had been put down for his benefit!  John stopped the car, and picked him up (VERY carefully) and put him on the side of the road.  He said he was in lovely condition, with not a spike out of place.  Perhaps he was on his way to an important appointment….

We were both encouraged by the fact that even though the fire had covered such a large area (over 20 square miles), the wallaroo was the only native animal that had come to our notice as being injured.  It would seem that most animals had time for escape.