A bummer of a day!

[nissanneill]

We normally experience Koalas visiting our place and last week we had 3 at once. A rather large and noisy male, a younger mother with her young baby clinging to her back.
Numerous times through out the night, the mail would grunt loudly calling attention for the female. She was quite content to stay for the week in the one tree which was heavily shaded by another tree and was quite cool when compared with the open gum trees that they prefer for the leaves.
Christmas day, the baby was exploring and came down the trunk to our call where we were freely patting it whilst the mother just sat and eyed us off. I even got the neighbor to come and experience the pleasure of a 'wild animal' in your front yard and accessible.
Last night we saw 'mum' without her baby and assumed that because she wasn't looking for it nor calling out for it that it was a different koala.
Unfortunately, this afternoon we found the baby dead on out front steps and had been dead for some time without us noticing it. Very unusual as we were sweeping the steps and generally cleaning up the yard for the green waste recycling pickup today.
So I feel rather flat and very forlorn at present after giving the baby a suitable burying.

Neill

[RTflorida]

That sucks...I'm not a chest pounding PETA member but I do love all animals. This would not only ruin my day, but probably the whole week. Glad to hear you took care of his remains after him giving you a few days of enjoyment.

RT

[Frances]

Oh, how sad. The poor little thing.
I hate it when something like that happens.

We apparently have a thriving population of shrews in the garden (admittedly not as exciting as Koalas, but they are a protected species around here and I think they're pretty cool). How do I know about them? The local cats kill them and leave them lying around. If they at least ate them up I wouldn't mind.

[jwnorris]

Originally Posted by Frances

<snip> ...a thriving population of shrews... <snip>

Are they tame? If not, there was an English fellow awhile back that wrote an instruction manual.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to ALL.

J W