farmdoc's blog post number 314

Nowadays stereotyping is politically incorrect. But my iconoclastic tendencies still whisper to me that all billy goats are gruff. I suppose that’s because the Norwegian folk tale Three Billy Goats Gruff was often read to me when I was a nipper. (‘Trip trap’ is marvellously onomatopoeic. I chant it most times I walk over our bridge.) Anyway, long story short, experience’s taught me not all billy goats are gruff. Here in Mole Creek we’ve had maybe ten, with all but two as gentle as gentle. The gentlest of all was Otis, who was more friendly and inquisitive than many humans I know. When he died, Sharon and I cried. We buried him on a grassy bank visible from our house. Now to wombats: I’ve previously written about Otis the wombat who came under my care last Boxing Day preceded by a reputation for obstreperousness. In the two months since then he’s been totally friendly. Not one bit cranky. Otis the wombat is to wombats what Otis the billy goat was to billies. I thought Kai Kai was the most wonderful wombat I’ve known. Otis sure gives her a run for her money. Anyway Otis’s been signalling to me he wants to be released. So yesterday I obliged, making him the ninth wombat I’ve released – four boys, five girls. If he and Kai Kai make babies together, their littlies should be charmers. But maybe they won’t be. I’ll never know.

farmdoc's blog post number 90

Almost everything in life has a beginning, middle and end. So too my love affair with Kai Kai. Of the eight wombats I’ve had here, she’s had the sweetest personality and calmest temperament. I fell in love with her immediately when she arrived almost three months ago, whilst mindful that soon enough she’d let me know she’d had long enough in the pen and she wanted to be in the bush. That time came last week, so I emailed Patsy at the Injured and Orphaned Wildlife Program in the Government’s Wildlife Management Branch seeking permission to release Kai Kai. Patsy agreed, so last Tuesday I unlatched the pen’s swing-gate. On Wednesday Kai Kai was still there, so I fed her and then tied the swing-gate open. That did the trick. I haven’t seen her since. Gone. I feel bereft. Lovelorn. I should feel happy, and I suppose I do. I hope she thrives in our bush and has several healthy babies. Patsy is now bottle-feeding three girl wombats under 1kg. Next year I’ll take one of them; but Kai Kai’s a hard act to follow. Patsy wrote: ‘She is one of the special animals that come along every so often. They are all special, but some more so. She is a very gentle, beautiful girl’. Indeed. Take care out there, Kai Kai – my friend.

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.