Kelli the Koala

Poor little thing up in the tree.  You'll have to click on the picture to hunt for her in that mass of trees.   She has cystitis, it's similar to a urinary tract infection.  It can turn into clamydia (sp) and as you can imagine, not a good thing for the koala population.  

So my good friend Liz, who, by the way, does not remotely resemble an animal rescue girl, was on call with the Animal Rescue Ambulance parked in front of her house when she got notice of this little gal with a "dirty bum".   Long story short, Jeremy and I went.

It was dark and thank goodness the man who spotted her showed up to point the way.  We walked through grass over our shoulders, climbed trees, finagled nets on the ends of long poles, tried to knock her into a big net, and finally pulled a thin tree down to the ground, grabbed her by the back just like a baby and plopped her (still gnawing away at what would have been a huge chunk of my hand minus the thick leather glove) into a cage that Jeremy manuevered excellently into place at just the right moment.  

She was definitely not happy about a single bit of it.  For something so adorable they can make the most terrifying sounds!  Fortunately Liz is a great teacher.  Very calm and good at making order out of chaos.  She was the one who said, "Just slide the glove off and let her have it in the cage."  Otherwize I am sure I would have tried to pull my whole arm out othe cage with koala attached and climbing up my neck!

We toted her back to the ambulance and off to Liz's house where she spent a quiet night waiting for the guys from Steve Erwin's zoo to come pick her up and take her to the vet.  She'll be treated, tagged and then released back to the spot where we first found her.  Her name?  Kelli.