I have just goten back form picking up another pinkie eatern Grey kangaroo joey. Another male that was named Matt from the girl who removed him from the pouch. I'm heading back to whitlesea tommorow night to start early on Sunday looking for the badly injured Kangaroos in particular. I will stay for about three days again doing as much as I can. I'm lucky enough to be able to stay with a friend up there during the night.

Today I receievd an incubator that was passed onto me from The Healesville Sancatuary. At the moement I have one joey in a basket with a heat pad and one in the incubator. The second joey although not furred and with his eyes also closed is a bit bigger than my first one.

Today has been flat out trying to get supplies that we need for the four kangaroos that came in at the shelter I work for. The roos have to have their four feet redressed with Silvazene and gauze and vet wrap every second day for the burns. The shleter has a roster of vet nurses who come and do the dressings.

Although lot's of money and supplies are coming in unfortunatly they are not getting out to all the shelters that have the burns victims. I have been bringing home some supplies from the triage center but they have had several thefts of medical supplies during the night when the tent isn't attended. This means they can only keep limited supplies on sight and limits what they can give out or I can take home for the shelters near to me. I'm starting to get to know what is needed in the local shleters. Most just need money so they can buy what they need.

I have a lady making possum and roo pouched by the local school Mums. They are hopeing to reach the thousand mark this weekend. Unfortunatly they are dropping these on my door step which has meant instead of me catching up with house work and resting before going back I have had to try and get them out where they are most needed. The rest are in my lounge room and on my frount porch.

I need to make some sence of it all before tommorow night aswell as finish the weeks washing and ironing and pick up some aviaries in teh moring aswell as supplies and then I have my husbands family coming for afternoon tea before I head off again. Most thoughtful of him to ask them and just happened to mention it to me tonight. Oh well so much for things begining and even keel.

Please note though that my Dad is really good at the moement and will continue with his chemo at a reduced rate in about two weeks. This is one worry off my mind while i'm away. I will be taking Jack and Matt wth me for there three and a half hourley feeds. My shelter owner Carol says that they will be better staying with me than changing hands. She said that they are more likely to die is If I pass them onto someone else as they will already be use to me handling them and will know my voice. Looks like I'm Mum.

Jett Morewell Vet clinic has supplies

Just jumped on my friends computer to give you all a quick update. Cloer home through out the Yarra Valley is on high alert for further bushfires today. Both my In-laws and my daughter and her husband live in these areas and have evacutated. I'm still up at the Whitlesea Country Fire Authority staging area looking for animals but it is mainly a case of euthanizing in this area. Many animals are being pulled out of other areas but we are on the fringe of an area that was badly burned and had many mobs of Kangaroos in it. Now the problem is the infections and setting in in their badly burned feet and the other problem is there isn't anything for them to eat and the dams are polluted form the fires. We are doing food drops of pellets and hay to these areas for any Kangaroos not badly affected but there are many that are in great pain.

I now have three furless Eastern Grey Kangaroos that I am also feeding around the clock and they will all come hme with me. They will be in cae for up to two years before I wll try to bring them back into this area for release. In two years the area should have regenerated some and there shuld be enough food for them. I alomst lost one last night and I was sure he wasn't ging to be alive bay morning but the little trooper has hung on and looks much better today.

I made a friend of a little boy who is about 11 and his housed burned down along with his two pet snakes, two cockatoos and his dog. it seems i have been one of the first people he has talked to about what happened. His school teacher who ius the girl I am staying with is on her way home with him now to see the Kangroo joeys I have. I'm hoping to sty in contact with him and maybe see if i can organize another snake and the enclosure for him.
I have befriended a few kids at the school who openly told me how they had lost everything and were now living with relatives. One of the Kangaroos has been named Maddison after the little girl who is badly bruned in hospital and lost all of her family in the fires, her parents and sister.

Tommorow I will head home with my new family of Kangaroos. I really wanted to foster something rather than possums but never imgained that this would be how it would come about. Today is quite warm and the northerly winds will fan the remaining burning fores so we are waiting till this afternoon before heading out looking for more injured wildlife. We are well informed up here being at the heart beat of the fire authority. Many of the areas we are going into have had falling trees and a fire fighter lost his life when a tree fell on him sveral days ago. There are also several people in hospital due to fallen burned trees. The hazards are everywhere so not only do you look for animals you have to be on full alert for hot ash under foot, dead limbs and the aniamls

You and all involved in this rescue are in my prayers. It is just to horrible to imagine. Thank God, they have people like you to help in this effort.

Amen to that!!

I don't even know what to say...I just couldn't imagine.

I'm just about to feed the joeys then going off to meet two of yhe shooters this morning. I wish it was more about saving the aniamls in this area but we have seen plenty of evidence that this just isn't the case. The other Wildlife group has pulled out as there isn't much to rescue just the dirty woirk left in this area now.

Last night we euthanized a female Estern Grey Kangaroo and I pulled a two inch pink joey from her pouch. The others feet were peeling off her and she wouldn't have survived the burns to her feet. Unfortunatly the joey had to also be euthanized wich i just cannot bring myself to do so the guy that I was with asked me to walk ahead so he could do it. He said it was certainly not something he liked doing but understood. I have keep seeing and doing things I could never imagine doing in my life. I covered many of these thing sin training but when we did I said to myself I would never do it. Here I am cutting joeys out of pouches and off teets and draggng dead Kangaroos off properties.

I wish their was more we could do here than what we are doing but it seems very black and white. The Kangaroos are either showing signs they have badly burned feet or they are fine. I have seen one joey yesterday that I would have liked to have darted to bring in but the resources weren't there for one joey. Later in the day when we wnet back I couldn't find him so I hope he is ok. This afternoon I'm going home and are not sure when I will be back. We are ment to be going away on the 5th of March and I will not be able to take the family with me which worries me as pinkies don't cope with change. Although saying that I have dragged them around the country side already and the girl I am staying with has been doing one feed for me to free me up to go out at night to look for the injured. I know loverly older couple who only raise pinkies that live near me so am hopeing they can Roo sit for me and that it will be an easy transaition for the new family.

I will get some much needed photos when I get home and post for you. My pinkie brishtail was ugly but you wait till you see these guys.

It's now midnight and I'm home and all the animals are fed but I have to be up at 2pm for the Kangaroos next feeds. I'm pretty exhausted but it will be good to be home for a few days at least. Not sure on my plans to head back to the fire devistaed areas at this stage. One of the girls who has two small childrean has been up there everyday and rushes home to pick up the kid's from school.

I have been lucky enough to be staying in the town with a friend who has helped me feed the joeys when i have been out searching of an evening. She has made me welcome anytime and has a caravan all set up with power for me if i decide to go back up. They are saying another 8 weeks it will probably take to sort out all the badly burned Roos. We are getting more and more calls every day as it beomes more obvious that the Kangaroos are in a lor of pain and badly burned. I have to ssy it will be good to be home for a while to concentrate on my new family and try not to think about the job that needs to be done out in all the areas where the fires have been and are still burning. Unfortunatly new fires are still springing up all the time. I cannot remember the last time we had rain. It must be at least over a month ago and things are just so dry it is not taking much for new fires to spring up.

Anyway I need a few hours sleep.

It's all just so devastating. I hope you get some rest finally!

Im praying for rain ur way

There are no words that haven't been said, no thoughts that haven't been given. God bless each and everyone of you, in your endeavour and constant fight. I will do my best to spread the word of the donation website. Take care of yourselves - your health and strength are important to be able to keep going. Thank you for all you are doing and the updates.

Such a tragedy. I look for news on this every day on the internet hoping there is some relief in sight.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to give us an up close and personal account of all the good that is happening because of people like you.

Thank you for caring for our planet's animals.

Jett I have a question. What rescue organization are you affiliated with?

quote:

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Originally posted by Belinda

Jett I have a question. What rescue organization are you affiliated with?

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Wildlife Victoria.

Thanks

I wish i coul report good news. i guess i should say that all teh joeys are going well which is good news. The thing is tonight right through thr Yarra valeey where most of my family live have either evacuated or are on high alert. strong wonds and extreme waether conditions including both heat and thunder storms are predicted for tonight and tommorow. My in-laws have evacuated and both my daughters and there husbands will leave early in teh morning. We should be ok however if the two main fires end up meeting we will also be in danger. In teh morning I will pack up all teh gliders, possums and roos ready for evacuation. I already have the four cat carriers lined up just incase. For teh first time in history teh police have sent out a warning of the dangers vis everyones mobile phones.
It reads:
Msg from Vic Police:Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night & Tues. High wind & fire risk. Listen to local ABC radio for emergency updates. 2/3/2009 This warning was sent to everyone in Victoria. With all Country fire authorities stretched to the limits more fires will be next to impossable to control, pretty scarey stuff to live through. Will keep you posted.

Oh my, I am so sorry to hear more heartbreaking news from your area. I was thinking about all of you last night as my husband and I were watching a documentary on wildlife in Australia. It brought tears to my eyes thinking about all that is happening there now.

Thank you for keeping us posted.

Continued prayers for you, your family, your neighbors and friends and of course, all of the animals.

As I continue to follow this everyday I never know what to say. There just aren't any words. My thoughts are to the tragic loss of life and the extinction of many types of animals/wildlife. It is so tragic and heart breaking. I pray for the best always for your country and your people and your wildlife. I could never imagine in a million years what you all must be going through. God bless you all for your efforts to save what can be saved and for taking care of what cannot. You are in my prayers always.

I watched part of the Today show this morning and they were doing a "visit Australia" piece that got me SO upset! They had some nbative aminals (a bearded dragon, wallaby, and red kangaroo). The girl hosts got all squealy about the animals and antsy about them moving around the studio, and the handler barely got a chance to talk about the animals. Then they did a piece about foods and were pretty rude IMO to the chef, being picky about tasting anything and then not letting the chef talk about his dishes. Then they had an aboriginee guy on to show the digeridoo (sp?) and he brought plastic ones for them to try so that he wouldn't offend any of his people and they treated THAT like a joke too. THEN they never mentioned any of the tragedy or dangers going on in Australia right now, just made me SO angry! They could have at least followed part of it with something like, "And we hope you've enjoyed this sharing of culture and animals. Australia is suffering from serious bushfires at the moment, you can go to this website to donate to the relief" or something like that! But no, it was all a big joke of, "since no one has money to travel we'll bring Aussie to you" and then they made fun of everything!

I am so glad that there are people working to help the wildlife and people struck by this event. Bless each and every one of you for everything you do.

Extremely strong winds were accuring all after noon right into the night which was a worry. One fire at Bunyip the CFA pulled out because it just wasn't controllable with the high winds. Some relief is in sight. It has been raining quite heavely since about 8pm tonight. The much needed rain may help in some areas howver the next worry is the thunder storms that are exspected. With the ground and trees just so dry even this bit of rain may not be able to dampen down a lightening strike. I haven't been getting much sleep with the feeding of the Kangaroos every couple of hours and then listening for high winds. I'm hoping in the next couple of days we might be able to see some change in the weather and the fires.
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/nrenfoe.nsf/LinkView/519C51D981DAE41FCA257257000A5163DC25C965BDA0CAF5CA2573B400013504

This is the map that shows all the fires still burning in Victoria, already people are getting very complacent about the fires yet homes and towns are still under threat.

I hope you are not sick of the updates but i am just posting as things roll out. Toaday is a loverly rainy day that is helping tremendously.
On a sad note I went up to the shelter i work for as the Vet was coming from the Healesville Sanctuary to re-dress the wounds on the three kangroos and the one wallaby that have all got burns from various fires. The infections were so bad that three of them had to be euthainzed. They were all doing so well. One the blood supply had cut off to one part of its big toe and this part was stone cold and dieing and removal of the big toe would mean no ballance for this Wallaby. The next one looked ok but they found a break in the joint of the large toe and the smaller toe had such a bad infection, the vet was going to amputate it but with the break at the joint this roo also wouldn't have any ballance. The third roo they decided to take back to the sanctuary to put on a drip and give it pain meds but when they shifted it too the car its gumms went a starnge colour and it started to froth at the mouth and was obviously dieing so they had to euthainze it as well. That means there is only one left of six that came into care that were burned and one furred joey that is doing ok and my three pinkie joeys. Over all a bad day.

We are only just starting to be alloud to go into some areas that were affected by fires as they deem these araes to be safe or the forensic teams have finished in these areas. There is still over 30 people missing and they believe many of those will never be found due to the intensity of the fires in many towns.

I might head out again as today I gained several qualified people who are happy to look after my babies any any time for me.

No - I for one, am not sick of the updates. It's just that it's difficult to respond. Dunno how to respond. Please know that I really respect what you and the others are doing, and that we're thinking of you. Our hearts go out to everyone and everything in Australia that has suffered so much because of this tragedy. Please keep us informed and stay strong.