farmdoc's blog post number 7

I have a new girlfriend. Her name is Kai Kai, and I met her last Friday thanks to Patsy and Mary who brought her from Hobart to Mole Creek and introduced us. Kai Kai is youngish and utterly beautiful, but she weighs only 15kg so she needs to put on weight, which Mary said will be easy because Kai Kai has a big appetite – for oats, hay and grass. I have been releasing wombats here since October 2004. Their mothers have died, usually hit by vehicles, and they are raised by volunteer carers who mother them until they are 12-15kg, then hand them on to others like me who keep them in pens and then release them into the bush. The Tasmanian Government agency which employs Patsy and Mary has accredited me to release wombats here. Kai Kai is my eighth wombat: the fifth female after Baby, Peggy, Tetley and Peezy, interspersed with three males named Grinder, Alexander and Johnny. Speaking of names, Mary told me that in the Thai language, Kai means chicken. So now you know. All going well, Kai Kai will be released in June or July. I welcome Kai Kai to Mole Creek, and I hope that her life here is long, healthy, blissful and fecund. But now I must rush off to feed her. I am smitten.