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email : koalahos@midcoast.com.au
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Fuzzy Roy
31 December 2003
Hello Everyone
It is with a heavy hear that I send you this message. Our beloved Fuzzy Roy was sent to Koala Heaven this moring. He had not been well for a few days and he was brought inside into I.C.U. where Cheyne took a blood sample and rushed it away for urgent attention. The result came back showing his Kidneys had failed so our Vet did the humane thing and put him to rest.
Fuzzy was one of our icons here at the hospital and was a major hit with all of our daily visitors and it is not going to seem the same with his empty yard
Barbara Barrett
Fuzzy Roy
Our intrepid fully trained rescue teams are often called out to retrieve koalas from what appears to be some "strange" locations. As humans have in fact invaded the koala territories and not the reverse, the poor koala has to continually tackle unatural constructions such as buildings, fences, road, cars, etc. that we humans have created. The Koala looks upon these obstacles as frustrating impediments that hinder their movements in getting from A to B within their home range. From a koala perspective, urban life has some very strange trees, funny bark, weird leaf, huge rocks (many that move and pass awful gas), ludicrous two legged animals and they small and act decidedly odd.
Koalas have been rescued from such places as: going up escalaters in shopping centres, the top floor of 3 storey car parks; tops of power poles; stranded on rocks on beaches; under houses; in garages; sitting on umbrellas in outdoor cafes; peoples living rooms; car yards; factories; busy main streets; front seat of cars; stranded on oyster leases; and one was found sitting on a fuel pump at the Settlement Point boat marina. The general public have even brought injured koalas into the hospital, as also the Police, Fire Brigade, Taxis, Truckies and Ambulance Drivers. One very badly burnt Koala was ferried down the Hastings river to Port Macquarie in a State Emergency Service rubber dingy, after being rescued from an horrific bushfire way up in the backwaters of the rivers tributaries.
"Normal" rescues are where Koalas are in backyards in unsafe situations with overly protective dogs nearby, or sadly after they have been attacked by dogs. Rescuers are often called out in the dead of the night (including in the middle of winter) to gather up a badly injured Koala lying in the middle of the street or the side of the road after being hit by a car, or found very ill at the base of a tree.
The public is generally wonderfull in reporting cases of "wet bottom" which is usually quite obvious to even the untrained observer. These are also rescued and brought in for treatment.
One of the many rewards of working in wildlife rehabilitation is the actual release of a Koala back to the wild. When a Koala has been admitted to the hospital in a gravely ill state, or so badly injured that the staff feel sure that the Koala will not survive the night, and to then go through often long periods of rehabilitation, the big light at the end of the tunnel is the ultimate release. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing those little white round bottoms scampering up a tree, those black rubbery noses sniffing the air of freedom and glancing down at us humans with a look of "thank goodness that's all over and I can get back to being a Koala again".
