Echidna Expert
3 May 2003 18:50![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
denApparently I'm the echidna expert. I was sent out to pick up another.
It was a fully-grown male, 2kg in weight and had buried itself in the families garden. The Dad helped dig it out while the Mum and 3 kids watched on. The echidna became agitated and began to whistle. "WhoooEEEEooooo!"
"Don't hurt it!" said the mum.
"I'll try not to," I said.
"You have to be careful!" she said. "That's my family totem."
We were careful. Eventually I got a gloved hand under the animal and lifted it. He curled into a big ball as I rolled him on his back, and he sqirted me with a big stream of piss.
I took him to the edge of town and was about to let him go, but something about his jaw looked wrong. I called the zoovets and took him out there.
His jaw was broken. We guessed by the line of broken spines and the face injury that he'd been run over. I left the echidna at the zoo, but I think they'll euthanase him.
It was a fully-grown male, 2kg in weight and had buried itself in the families garden. The Dad helped dig it out while the Mum and 3 kids watched on. The echidna became agitated and began to whistle. "WhoooEEEEooooo!"
"Don't hurt it!" said the mum.
"I'll try not to," I said.
"You have to be careful!" she said. "That's my family totem."
We were careful. Eventually I got a gloved hand under the animal and lifted it. He curled into a big ball as I rolled him on his back, and he sqirted me with a big stream of piss.
I took him to the edge of town and was about to let him go, but something about his jaw looked wrong. I called the zoovets and took him out there.
His jaw was broken. We guessed by the line of broken spines and the face injury that he'd been run over. I left the echidna at the zoo, but I think they'll euthanase him.
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no subject
Date: 3 May 2003 06:24 (UTC)Den, I don't know if it helps, but I'm grateful to you for taking care of these critters, even when that care means that you have to euthanize them rather than letting them die slowly and painfully.
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Date: 3 May 2003 07:04 (UTC)no subject
Date: 3 May 2003 07:12 (UTC)But I see the point. "Bloody humans run over me, and they dig me out of my house? Piss ON THEM!!".
That really is sad. You'd think if it was a totem animal they'd just let it alone.
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Date: 3 May 2003 08:32 (UTC)