Stories of a short, fat bastard.

Eastern Snaked Necked Tortoise This is the same species as Shelley, who was in my care last year. She was found wandering "the roads" but since I have no actual location other than "the bush this side of Gilgandra" I can't take jer back. I'll let her go in the river when the weather warms a little. She has been hibernating under a pile of shredded newspaper. I haven't named her, but I'm sure someone will think of something clever since she has spent so much time on Page 3 of The Sun.

Wood Ducks Four wood duck ducklings came into my care on Friday, but one died and the other had to be euthanased. It had a broken leg that looked like the femur had split length-ways, and poked through the skin. The duck family was attacked by a dog and the parents flew off, which left the remaining huddle of duckings, well... sitting ducks. After cats had finished there were four of the 12 left, and now there are two. They're eating well when they're not huddled under the light bulb. Soon I'll set up an outside cage so they can get the sun during the day to prevent rickets, but for the next two weeks they're under the bulb. They're not as evil as black bucks, but they're still pretty evil. And disgustingly cute.

Bearded Dragon. The dragon was sunning himself happliy on a road when a car ran over the top of him. The dragon didn't move so he missed all the wheels, but something under the car clipped his head. He has an injury on the nose and under his right eye.I'll take him to the zoovets on Monday for a checkup. Right now he is sunning himself in a box, and expanding his beard at me to be a Big Scary Dragon. Which is cute.

Shelley is gone. I put her on the boat ramp, she looked at the water for a few minutes, and voom! She was gone.

Duckies

The two little ducks are much larger and have been moved to the day cage outside. That cage has a grass floor and shallow water dish for them to bath and sunbake as required because their down is not yet fully waterproof and they get drenched. The UV will do them good, too. They still don't have feathers which means I have to bring them in at night and supply them with a 40W light bulb for heating. They are really wild and panic when anyone goes near, so release will be easy.

Blue Tongue Lizard

He had no injuries so I let him go in the garden. My mix of I Can't Believe It's Not Molluscs is vanishing every day and it's not mice eating it. I had to stop putting bananas into the mix because I can't afford to buy them at the moment.

Shelley

Her wire frame and super glue supports are rock-hard; there is no movement along the crack in her shell. When her nutral-cure sillicone is fully dry I'll re-introduce her to water so she can eat. Snake-neck tortoises don't have tongues and require their heads to be underwater so they can eat. Next Week she'll get wet and wild, with shredded greens.

Freddie

Bat is being difficult. He refuses to eat all the meal worms, which means I have to squeeze the creamy wormy goodness out of the bodies and smear it on his face, forcing him to lick himself clean. Enough goes in to keep him alive but he's still thin. I hope soon he'll get a taste for the worms and eat the whole lot. When that happens I can get him to self-feed from a dish and move him into a bat-tent. Right now he's still in the rescue bag.

Turtle's shell is still a little weak, but it's nothing some new sillicone and 6 month's R&R won't fix. Their metabolism is slow anyway, but the extra cold over winter almost shut down her healing process. The silicone kept her injury clean and dry while she was in the front garden.

I am so bloody pissed off at the moment. I came home from work to find the cover to Shelley's confinement cage open. We had 4 year old Faith visiting while I was at work, and she wanted to play with the turtle. Mum told her not to, it wasn't a pet, and "Dennis is trying to make it better."

Hours later mum discovered the box open and Shelley gone. Faith had wanted to pat the turtle, and in that typical Kids way got distracted by shiney things, or her hair, or some other bloody thing and ran off to do something else, leaving the box open.

I am So Bloody Cranky right now. I had a rant to write about web comics but I can't even think straight at the moment. I'm going to need a six-pack of polar bears.

Meet Shelley. She is 20 years old, likes swimming, hiking and playing "Frogger."

( Shelley )