I have always loved animals and grown up with a mother who had taken me on night raids to rescue animals that needed help. A greyhound with a broken leg locked in a bleak old run down shed in the middle of a cold English winters night with nothing to keep it warm or a guinea pig, a raw ball of flesh and sores with barely a hair on its poor body. Whenever there was an animal in need mum would ferret it out and home it would come. We had baby hedgehogs sleeping in the warmth of the airing cupboard that we bottle fed, birds that could not fly and all the ponies we grew up with arrived either having been bashed around, with whip lashes across their back or were suffering from starvation.So it was no surprise to find my own life filling up with the weary and the footsore of the animal world.
Munki
We gave Munki a home when he was only a few months old.He was suffering from mange and malnutrition and it was a slow old progress back to health.One of the most important aspects to treating animals that have come from abuse is a regular routine,something they can rely on that nurtures stability and healing.Its as much as an emotional journey as it is a physical one.We use natural remedies as much as we can and we successfully treated his mange by spraying him daily with a mixture of baby oil,tea tree and eucalyptus.Munki can be seen on our previous web page with Gill and also in the photo of him sitting down with our little goat Pippy jumping on him.He has grown huge and looks as if he will be one of our biggest camels.
Adjani & Gill
This is Adjani,we gave her a home as we travelled.She had been leant to someone by her owner and when she was returned was very aggressive,biting and bowling people over.She was basically left in a paddock with some horses until we travelled through the town and hearing about her,asked if we could have her.With a big animal like this you have to be really clear about your boundaries and you need to discipline,but without creating more fear.What we do with our camels,because we do not use nosepegs,is to tie them down so that they are in a sitting position.Each case is different,but with Adjani,she was expecting to be hurt,she is at her most vunerable,she can not run away or attack.We then gently swished her all over with a young branch and she cried and cried and gradually she calmed.It was her first lesson in trusting us and it can be quite gut wrenching to watch,because like us animals store their pain and they also need an outlet to release it in order to heal.This is what we provided and it works.Adjani has become such a treasued part of our family,a gentle camel who had simply had her trust broken and was defending herself the only way she knew.
Bella
Bella came to us,less than a year and all ready covered in harness sores.We had to buy her to get her out of the home she was in.When we went to get her,we found a goat with its head tied to its leg,so it could not eat the trees.Its headcollar had worn a big raw sore in this poor animals nose.We paid the exhorbitant price and bought the goat too.
Bella & Odi arrive home...safe at last.
Mozee
This lucky camel was rejected by the meat yards because of his poor condition.Skeletal and mangy,it was a big job getting this boy on top of life again.He is now fit and healthy and i think he sometimes forgets that we rescued him,because he can be very cheeky.He has definately got a sense of humour.I once saw him watch Gill bend down behind him and then so gently i saw Mozee give a tiny little boot and Gill fell over.There was definately a grin on that camels face and i had one too.Happily Gill saw the funny side.
Blossom
Little Blossom was a Major Mitchell parrot, who had been found in the wild with a broken wing, that would never heal and kept in a small cage for a year until she came to us. She looked so much happier sitting on top of her cage instead of behind the bars and very soon we noticed her trying to get down from the veranda into the garden. Gill speedily responded to her needs and made her a ladder that went straight from the top of the cage to the garden itself. Every morning after breakfast this little parrot would travel down the ladder into the garden and scrambling over logs and struggling through the long grass she would climb to the very top of the tallest tree in the garden and stay there all day. At sunset, just in time for her nightly feed and her fresh corn, she would make her way home. This little bird I had learnt so much from, that never gave up, that did not focus on her disadvantages and always climbed the highest tree, eventually got taken by a hawk. There is always this chance when you let them free,but seeing how this parrot transformed when she was given back her freedom.I know we made the right choice.
Happy camels enjoy a splash at the end of a busy day.
Please remember,all the work we do with rescued animals is self funded...your help is appreciated...many thanks.
wunjocrow@hotmail.com
