A work of fiction.

She lay on the ground, with her head slightly raised on her elbows so she could keep a lookout. The bracken ferns covering her made her almost invisible, but she was still terrified that she would be seen before she could take the shot. A small stone was digging sharply into her hip, but as she moved slightly the dry eucalyptus leaves beneath her cracked and crunched, making her freeze again. She would have to leave the stone were it was. It was a small price to pay considering the job she was here to do. Another mosquito buzzed gently around her, landing on the back of her neck, but she didn’t dare swat it. She was going to be covered in bites by the time she was finished, but it was worth it. One whiff of insect repellent might have given her position away and put the whole mission in jeopardy. She heard a noise in the bush only a few metres from where she lay concealed in the bracken. Her heartbeat quickened as she gently turned her head towards the disturbance, but it was not the quarry that she sought, merely a wallaby grazing obliviously. As she watched the wallaby, completely mesmerized by it, it glanced swiftly behind it and began to hop quickly away. She strained her eyes to see what the wallaby had seen and somewhere overhead the alarm call of a honeyeater rang out. The moment had arrived. She knew she would only have one shot; it would have to be perfect. Her heart began to pound loudly in her ears and she made an effort to calm herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, a familiar form stood in the clearing in front of her. She carefully took aim, looking down the barrel, and centring the cross hairs between the yellow eyes.

“Click!”

The thylacine ran, but it didn’t matter – she had the photograph. She had proof; the thylacine lives.

Written in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep.

Vote

Hey guys,
I need your opinion on something. I want to do an owl related craftiness that will result in me having some sort of owlish throw pillow, but I'm a bit stuck. Should I:

A. Have a cushion shaped cushion with an owl appliqued on it. See examples below.

OR

B. Have an owl shaped cushion. See example bellow.

Let me know in the comments.

The unexpected housemate

Tiani and I are renting a fairly spaceous 3 bedroom home. The thought of having a third housemate had occured to both of us, but as we didn't know anyone that was in need of a place to live (anyone we were prepared to live with, that is), the third bedroom stood almost completely empty and unused. Until a couple of days ago.

Tiani's other best friend, Christine, was in need of short term accomadation in Launny in short notice and asked if she could rent the third bedroom. She moved in on Monday, and now there are three of us. Christine is studying at uni, so she only needs somewhere to live in Launny until the end of the uni semester, but maybe she'll stay on.

Tiani and I were discussing last night how our lives could be turned into a sitcom following the lives of the three young women who lived in the house on Westbury Rd, but we decided that there would probably need to be a love interest for either myself or Christine to make the story line interesting so its not likely to happen. If we did have a sitcom, I would name it "Three's a Crowd" because I think its a very sitcom-y name.

Mad Eye Tawny

This is Mad Eye Tawny, a Tawny Frogmouth. Its not a great photo of him because I didn't want to use the flash and blind him or disturb him too much, but its better than nothing. Unfortuantely, this little guy was hit by my cousin's car, but, fortunately, he stopped and checked on him. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to fly away by himself, Rob (who was travelling in convoy whith Chris) rang me up for advice. Mum and I then had a short notice road trip to Deloraine to pick him up, and brought him home to Mum and Dad's. There were no obvious major injuries, so I treated him for shock and concussion by giving him a hot water bottle and blanket and leaving him in a dark, quiet room for the night. Fidget didn't even notice that there was an owl in her house, but this morning she did throw a bit of a tantrum because she had been shut out of the room he was in all night and I was going in and out but denying her access.

This morning, I rang the wildlife care coordinator and she gave me the number of a carer that specialises in birds like Mad Eye. The carer, as it turns out, lives in Legana just over the road from the vet clinic I was taking Sophie to, so I packed Mad Eye in my cat's emergency evacuation box and Sophie in her comfy cardboard box into the front seat of my car and dropped of Mad Eye on the way to the vet. Hopefully he doesn't have any broken bones, and he'll be release back into the wild after a couple of days care.

Sophie the Super Chook

Today, I took Sophie, one of my four chickens, to the vet. Sophie's been limping badly for about 3 weeks now. When she first started limping, I examined her and couldn't find any obvious injuries so I hoped that she would get better by herself. But she didn't get any better and watching her limping about after the other 3 girls was breaking my heart so I decided to take her to the vet. I made an appointment with the closest vet and shortly before it was time to leave, I organised a nice comfy box and went to get Sophie. Unfortunately I'd been silly enough to let the chooks into the whole yard about an hour earlier, but it only took a handfull of seed to get Sophie into a corner, into her box, and into the car.

The vet nurses were very amused by me bringing my chook to the vet clinic at Legana and they probably think that I am some tragic chook fancier, but I don't really mind. While Sophie and I were waiting for our turn to see the vet, a little girl and her brother who were waiting for their dog to have his injection got chatting to Sophie and were quite taken by her. They have 3 chooks themselves, but they aren't very friendly so they were loving being able to stroke Sophie's feathers through the box while she chattered and clucked gently. When their dog came out, the little girl wished Sophie luck, and it was our turn to see the vet. I have pretty high standards when it comes to vets, but this one pleasantly surprised me; she was very thorough, and seemed to be quite comfortable and familiar with chooks despite the reactions of the vet nurses. Sophie was exceptionally well behaved through the whole process. She didn't struggle to get away at all, and when she was put on the floor to walk and demonstrate her limp, she didn't move until the vet gave her a gently tap on the tail to which she responded by pooing. When I knelt down and spoke to her she limped over to me, giving the vet a perfect display of her limp. The vet couldn't feel any fractures or obviously problems but she found the part of her leg that was sore and it was a bit swollen so Sophie was sent home with a week's worth of Metacam and strict instructions for bed rest. I'm not sure that you can explain to a chook that they need to rest and not walk to much, even a chook as well behaved as mine, so I've now settled Sopie into the small rabbit enclosure next to the chook house. I'm hoping that with a week of medication and rest, she'll be able to rejoin her sisters, but I think that Sophie is probably always going to be my little favourite.

Two of my favourite things in one picture...

I still haven't had a chance to watch the latest Dr Who yet. So sad.