Instalment 10 Saturday 16 April 2011

I made it through the first night feeding, toileting and settling the two possums without too much trouble. Saori is really no trouble at all. She already is such a character and she is so tiny. By this morning though, I must admit to feeling a little sleep deprived, but I'm doing fine.

This morning I had a friend come over to meet up with me for our monthly Writers' Club. We had a very productive session and we both enjoyed it immensely. Julie enjoyed seeing the baby possums feeding.

Today we attended the engagement of a young couple we know. It was a lovely afternoon catching up with people we don't often see these days.

When we got home I had to feed the babies. They were hungry and ate up well. Saori doesn't have the best appetite, but she has just gone through a lot of changes, so it doesn't surprise me.

I've discovered that she really likes to climb down the front of my shirts and blouses. She likes to hear my heart beat and I think she likes the feel of skin. I don't have a problem with her doing that, but she is reluctant to get back into her sleeping bag, though. It can often be a little tricky trying to coax her back inside her pouch. After awhile I generally win and once she is in there she is happy and content.

I put both babies (who were now in one pouch) inside my bra and they came out to dinner with the family. We went to La Quinta, which is a Mexican Restaurant at Bulimba. No-one knew. The possums were sleeping soundly and very settled. It was our little secret.

We really enjoyed our night out together. Joss, Chris, Dylan and Tahlia accompanied Ian and I to the restaurant. Unfortunately Kimmy had to work, so we missed having her with us.

The possums have really become part of the family and all seems well, so far. Here's hoping it continues this way.

Words from Willow Pond: Instalment 9 Friday 15 April 2011

Words from Willow Pond: Instalment 9 Friday 15 April 2011 - to find out about our possum adventures - click here.

Instalment 9 Friday 15 April 2011

Yesterday I received a call from Gillian. She told me she had a new baby girl possum as a mate for Tamigotchi, who was an orphan and had been found at Cleveland. The vets phoned Gillian and she went and collected her, looked her over and rang me.

So this afternoon I went and collected her from Gillian. Ian got busy thinking up names and came up with Saori. Sounds so weird. Here we are raising Australian native wildlife and all the little Aussie possums we are raising have Japanese names. Go figure. Oh well, no harm done.

I weighed Tamigotchi before I went over to Gillian's and he weighed in at 74 grams, so he is putting on weight. As of yesterday, Thursday, I've had Tamigotchi for one week (7 days) and he was 59 grams. Now after a week, he has grown to 74 grams. I think that is a pretty good gain. I took Tamigotchi along for the ride so Gillian could take another look at him just to make sure he was doing well.

Little Saori is just a delight. She is very tiny but not a pinky. She looks a little smaller than what Tamigotchi was when I found him. Saori likes to cuddle in and she is very delicate and extremely cute.

We tried to put them together but decided, in the end that they might just need a little more time to get used to one another.

When I got them both home, I settled Tamigotchi down and then I spent time cuddling and getting to know Saori. She is an absolute delight and already I can see a huge difference in their personalities.

Saori settled in very quickly, though she didn't seem too interested in eating very much. She is a very social creature as opposed to Tamigotchi, who is really very shy.

Instalment 8 Thursday 14 April 2011

Tamigotchi is thriving and continues to eat well. I don't really have too much to report today, except that I found Tamigotchi seven days ago, so he has been with us one whole week now.

I continue to love him and enjoy the quiet times where we just get to sit and cuddle. He is a beautiful little boy.

Instalment 7 Wednesday 13 April 2011

Tamigotchi has an appetite. He loves his food. He eats regularly every four hours. This can be quite tricky for me if I have to go out somewhere. I find myself trying to fit things in that need doing around four hourly increments of time. This is fine when I'm hanging around the house doing jobs, but if I am meeting up with friends, etc, it can prove quite challenging.

I remember after Kimmy was born, she attended her first birthday party when she was four days old. I've never been one to sit on my haunches, so today was quite busy in that I fed Tamigotchi before heading off to a doctor's appointment. When I got home from the doctor's appointment, I did a few things, fed Tamigotchi again and then a friend called over to pick me up.

We drove across to Kedron, which is northside of Brisbane, to Edsco, an educational resource centre and spent time browsing, dreaming and yes, buying resources. Then we came back home. I fed Tamigotchi his next feed and then my friend and I headed to Gumdale to have lunch together and meet up with another friend for coffee. Everything went smoothly and Tamigotchi happily ate regularly. It's amazing what you can fit into your day once you set your mind to it.

Later on, after I'd returned home and my friend had left, I fed Tamigotchi again, did a few more jobs so that I could be on time for some IT/Pronto training at church. The volunteers who work in the Resource Centre were to come at 5:30pm for more training on the cash registers and the Pronto program for sales, etc. Someone was coming from Hillsong Sydney, a guru in the Pronto system to help bring us all up to speed.

After training, I left to drive over to Milton where I was to meet Ian. We had been invited out to dinner. Tonight would prove to be interesting because Tamigotchi would be due for a feed at 9:30pm - probably just after dessert. This meant that he would travel with me in the car and I had had to pack a thermos and everything he would need for his feeding time.

I parked the car in McDougall Road, Milton, (just off Park Road), where we were eating at the restaurant. We met up with our friends and Ian's son, 'Pud' and we went to Embers, because they cook great steaks there.

Sure enough, soon as I'd finished dessert, it was time to go back to the car to feed Tamigotchi. Well, I didn't think too much about this as I walked to the car, but then a scenario began to unfold into a surreal image. Picture this: (not all things are as they seem)

A woman - alone, walks the semi-deserted street and turns down a dark road that leads to a car. She flicks the remote to unlock the doors. She opens the back door, reaches in and pulls out a basket that is covered with a towel. She shuts the door and walks around to the passenger side of the car, opens the door and climbs into the darkness.

She rests the basket on the driver's side seat and reaches up to push on the overhead reading light. A small light spills into the dark space. The woman sits for a moment and begins to extract utensils from a plastic bag; a thermos, a cup, a syringe and heats up the contents in the syringe. She reaches over and gently lifts out a small pouch from the basket and unloops the rubber band from the top of the pouch. She lifts out the small bundle of fur and positions the syringe, while the little furball begins to suck happily.

This all seems innocent enough when you actually know what is happening. But as the woman, (namely me) sat doing all those things, I suddenly became very conscious of what this all might look like to an outside observer who could only see part of the picture. It made me feel quite uncomfortable and a tad 'guilty'. It was the weirdest feeling because I was, in reality, doing something very innocent, but the situation of where I was doing it and the impression of what I may have been doing, made me feel really weird. It is something I had never even thought about until I was actually in the situation. It is hilarious to think this, for those who know me, but when I got back to the restaurant and shared this weird 'experience' with my friends, they all saw the funny side and had a bit of laugh about it. Crazy times.

However, even for the dodgy part of the night, we all had a wonderful time sharing a tasty dinner with good company. And, everything worked out well. Tamigotchi enjoyed his dinner and we did too. No one missed out anything. And I didn't get 'busted' for doing what could have looked like to any passerby - 'drugs'. I just think I've got a wild imagination, that's all.

Instalment 6 Tuesday 12 April 2011

Tamigotchi continues to eat well and is really quite a shy little fellow. Ian says we don't know what his circumstances are. He may have suffered a big fall before I found him. His mother may have booted him out of the pouch, or a larger sibling may have bullied him. Who knows what his story is? We can only guess at what he endured before coming to live with us. There could be all sorts of reasons why he is so shy and sensitive, besides the obvious that he is in a very 'scary' place right now, trying to come to terms with who all these strange people are and all the strange smells that are in the air.

When he is out of his pouch, he sniffs the air trying to get a grip on his new surroundings, but probably feels overwhelmed with all the changes he has faced during the last few days.

I understand this only too well, but the difference for Tamigotchi between the choice of
a) having to endure these changes or, b) being left to fend for himself and certain death is very clear for me. Option b) was never ever going to be an option once I found him.

So, we've been making the best of the situation and the result is hopefully, that Tamigotchi gets a second chance at a life that eventually will include playing in his future favourite trees here at Willow Pond, and eventually having his own little family.

He feels secure in his little pouch but doesn't like to venture out too much. I lift him out and cradle him securely to feed him and then I attempt to toilet him by using some tissue. This practice emulates the mother possum and helps to keep the possum's pouch clean. It is important to do this after every feed. He seems quite comfortable with me handling him and never makes too big of a fuss. As soon a he is fed, been to the 'bathroom' and had long, delicious cuddles, he readily snuggles into the dark, warmed confined space of his pouch to sleep away the daylight hours.

He's been with us five days now and we seemed to have worked out our routines quite well. I still seem to be coping with the broken sleep patterns, though I guess, time will tell.

Instalment 5 Monday 11 April 2011

Tamigotchi was very sleepy when I went to give him his first morning feed. He took a little while to stir. It initially made me a little worried, but I gradually relaxed when I realised he was just sleepy after all and was indeed, okay. I remembered I'd earlier heard him making his clucking noise inside his pouch, so my common sense should have kicked in. But it is really hard not to worry.

After he ate, I spent some time cuddling him. My maternal instincts took over and I felt the need to nurture him and let him know that he was not alone. It's most important that he doesn't feel alone because he needs a community to survive. He snuggled into my nightie, yes, you guessed it - near my chest, and fell asleep after his breakfast, and I was happy for him to be there.

Last night I gave Gillian, my mentor a courtesy call to let her know how things were progressing. I gave her an update on our little guy. We made an appointment to meet up on Tuesday, about 2 pm, so she could check him out and see for herself how he was doing.

I spent most of the night, well, up to 2:30am putting together all my students' entries to a couple of major poetry and short story competitions. I couldn't go any longer past 2:30am. I was exhausted.

I fed Tamigotchi and climbed into bed - exhausted and knowing that the alarm was set for 6:30am. Some sleep-in.