Schadenfreude

[alice]

I am so glad that these are for life in a park Alice.

I always get worried about joeys imprinting too strongly with humans and ending in trouble should a release be attempted.

I am also concerned about what is provided as diet by people who are "well-meaning".

I have the same concerns, although I'm quite a 'new expert' on some of this, so a lot of what I'd be imparting as facts is just information that me son is passing through to me, and I may misinterpret some of it. But he's mentioned to me that if released in the wild, in addition to the additional dangers to the 'roos, there's also a possiblility of additional danger to people, if they are associating people with food and don't have the usual reluctance to approach people.
The park has full 'control' over this little 'roo, and they are always monitoring, even though it's in my son's care. I said earlier that he can name it, but even then, the name has to be 'approved' by the park (this is for a different reason - it's to ensure it's a suitable name for general purposes, of course, but also in case there was any media write up or similar about any of the orphan 'roos, koallas quolls etc. The park needs to ensure the name would be okay for PR purposes! So although he gets to name it, even that is 'controlled').
And the diet is, of course, under their instruction.

A few years ago my son wanted to do wildlife rescue and I did put my foot down at the time - He was a lot younger and at the time I explained that the burden would fall on the whole family, not just him, and I didn't have the time, knowledge or finances to help him. I used to say that if he wanted to do that sort of thing when he was older I would support him, but he would have to make sure he researched and knew how to care for them before he took things like that on. So this in a good compromise, becuase any knowledge he's lacking is being taught hands on with the 24 hour support of the park experts.

(He still used to look after domestic rescues though, so we were still kept busy!!)

They said two days ago that they now have a little orphan koala but that's gone to one of the more experienced handlers - how cute would that be!!
But in this house - one 'baby' at a time is enough for now!!

We've got a very full household of animals at the moment (very, very full)

And that's different ..... how?
You have always had a house full of animals.

Right now we are down to the dog (Black lab named Apollo) and a turtle (red eared slider named Red).
We did find 10 caterpillars on the parsley plant. I looked them up and found out they were black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. So we let them devour the parsley plant but after having 10, only one completed it's journey into butterfly-dom. (we missed it emerging from it's cucoon) Looks like three were eaten, four just died and two went into cucoons of which only one emerged (one just disappeared). The other one that went to cucoon, set up his site so that it was hanging upside down. According to the info I read their head needs to be mostly upright while changing. One out of ten, I guess that's not too bad. Plus the parsely plant is regrowing. Maybe it's not too late for a second round butterfly hopefulls. I am keeping an eye out for eggs laid on the leaves now that I know what they look like.

I think we're about at capacity now!!

I won't list them all - it's easier to be in denial!!!!

But we've now got a turtle as well - it's a Murray River tutle (or Macquarie turtle). It's not my favourite creature and I think it would bite my finger if I was silly enough to put it in the vicinity of it's mouth. I'm happy not to be having to look after that one.
And we've still got the snake, for now, although he's talking about selling the snake and if he does I'll be more than happy! It's about 6ft now and starting to thicken up in size
The only reptile he's had that I liked was the bearded dragon - they're full of personality and become quite attached to their owners. He got that as a recue from an environment where it hadn't been looked after at all, and it bonded so quickly wity him when it learned he was going to be good to it - it was just adorable. We were all in tears when it eventually died, and I don't usually get too soppy over reptiles!!

[alice]

LoCa, I followed the link and read the comments and then also followed the link in one of the comments to the site put up by former employees...

There should be a special place in hell for a person like this. I really hope she does some time measured in years. Maybe in addition to the animal cruelty charges they can nail her for fraud, and I'll bet they find more charges to add if they go through her books with a fine tooth comb...I hope they throw the book at this Cruella DeVille....

To think of these poor animals finding themselves abused and neglected all their lives only to be taken out of that environment and put in this bitch's clutches....

It's sickening....

I agree (although I haven't finished reading it yet - I can't. I''ll finish reading it another time.)

I feel almost physical pain whenever I read about deiiberate acts of cruelty - why would anyone do this sort of thing? How can anyone taker pleasure out of hurting other creatures? And then she's in an extra degree of cruel becuase how can anyone profess to care about them and then treat them so badly?

There are people who have well meaning intentions who do things quite accidentally, like, as Hen mentioned above, feed rescue animals wrong diets etc - at least they're coming from a headspace of good intentions, and so while the outcome is sometimess sad, at least they are coming from a compassionate place.
But she's on another level - I don't know what her original intentions started out as, but there's no compassion in her any more, and I wish for her that Hell exists and has a a special place for her.

(Thank you for the update, loCAtek)

[alice]

It's 4:45am
We are desperately hoping the joey makes it through the night.
She took a turn for the worse - we've had her on antibiotuics and probiotics for a couple of days, but she's developed hypoglycemia. We're feeding her honey.
The vet has been providing us with after hours advice - hence the honey - but the clinic opens in four hours.
All we can do is hope she lasts that long.
There's nothing more we can do. We're al awake and helping with the care, but it's quite critical.

[Gob]

Hope she makes it Alice, respect to you for caring.

[Lord Jim]

[alice]

We've spent all morning with the vets etc and in consultation with the wildlife park, have had her euthanised. It's nearly 2pm and we're not long home. I'm having a cuppa before we begin the jsad ob of cleaning alll her stuff from the house.
At the end of the day she ran out of fight, and even if we had put her through the long stressful treatment there was no guarantee she'd survive. If she survived sheds probably be susceptible to other things and it would probably have been 'one thing after another'.
It does make my son feel a little better knowing that he did absolutely nothing wrong and there was nothing anyone can do. There has apparently been an outbreak of coccidia at the park - this joey was one of the victioms, and would have had it before my son even took her on. Despite the vet visits and other expert advice/help, this wasn't diagnosed until too late to be able to save her. (After it was realised what was happenong at the park) The diagnosis that led to the antibiotics was a reasonable diagnosis on the symptoms available, and it's possible that because her immune system was weak she had more than one thing anyway ... After seeming to thrive at first she went down like a ton of bricks in the end, and it just took one illness to set the downward spiral going. She was a ticking time bomb.

My son is upset, but practical about it, and the park have praised his handling of the whole thing, including knowing when the hard decision was needed.

[loCAtek]

[The Hen]

It is making that final decision that is so hard for so many.

You did the right thing.

[Lord Jim]

I'm so sorry it had to end that way Alice.

But you did your best; she couldn't have been in better or more caring hands...

[Gob]

A shame, but what matters is not the outcome, but that you tried.

Well done Alice, no one could have asked more of you and yours.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Alice
So sorry about Lilly, LuLu (and whatever other name she went by).
I know how you feel about animals and all of those that have been in your (and your families) care over the years. I know your son and you did all that could be done (probably more than even the most caring of animal handlers would) and that in the end the joey knew it had the peace and love of both of you.
I am sad for you and your son and hope you both find peace in knowing you did the right thing. Other animals will come and appreciate that love and caring you give to them and gave to this young roo.
You're a special person alice and you passed that on to your family. Be in touch soon (I know I always say that but between work and AA meetings every night, time gets limited).