Instalment 28 Wednesday 4 May 2011

Today is athletics day and I've been asked to help out with the boys' high jump. We've had a fair amount of rain lately and yesterday afternoon we experienced a wild storm front. It almost looked like the athletics carnival might have to be cancelled, however, it fined up and the kids got their whole day of field events in with no problems.

The oval was really slippery and we had some spills and thrills at the high jump arena, but the boys were tough and knuckled down to have a great time. The field events went through till 1pm and then it was back to a normal day.

I fed the babies and then went to grab a bite to eat myself. Linda, a friend who teaches up in the secondary school popped down to have a cuppa with us during our lunch time. It is always good to catch up with her.

The rest of the afternoon I spent back in Writers' Circle and then at the end of the school day, I had to leave on time to go up to the secondary library to meet a new student that I was to tutor this term. I fed the babies before I left. I took the babies with me and no one was the wiser. The possums are really no trouble at all.

This first tutoring session went well and my student proved to be lovely. Once the session was over I ended up having to go back to my classroom because I'd left my keys back in my room accidentally.

I headed home and got myself ready for Book Club, which was due to start at 7:30pm. I got some dinner organised, fed the babies. My darling Kimmy kindly vacuumed the floor for me, so everything was looking lovely and spiffy. Then, Kimmy decided to whip us up a batch of home made scones...mini ones that were light and fluffy. It doesn't get much better than that.

Book club was great and we had a great discussion about this month's title: 'The Good Earth' by Pearl S. Buck. The evening was topped off with tea and coffee and warm, fresh scones.

Instalment 27 Tuesday 3 May 2011

Another trip to school, with possums in tow. They were very well behaved and I seem to be managing the feeding routine at school without any problems. I managed to get a car park a little closer to my class which helps with all the things I have to carry.

I left a little earlier for school and fed the possums after I'd set up my laptop and got my class organised. This will get the babies through till after morning tea. I have to attend a meeting all the way through morning tea, so I will feed them after that.

This is Week 2 of second term and it's the second week where I will only be able to teach Writers' Circle on one of my days because tomorrow is our Primary's athletics day. I will still be working, but doing different jobs. I spent some of today endeavouring to set up some new display areas in my classroom. The students worked hard on their Writers' Profiles and we enjoyed a good day of writing.

Instalment 26 Monday 2 May 2011

I told Ian my plan for the trees and where I'd like to plant them and he kindly got busy fencing the area off from the horses. He did a really great job and now we have a great place to plant the trees. It really will be like a possum playground when we are finished.

While Ian fenced, I began using the hoe to dig up holes for the trees. The ground is lovely and soft from all the rain we've been having. It made digging the holes much easier. I managed to dig four out of the six holes by the time Ian finished fencing. Our neighbour Frank brought us over some worm fertiliser to put in the bottom of the trees holes. Frank manufactures worm tea, using Jossy's horse poo. Frank always brings us some of the finished product and it is amazing stuff. The plants love it and are all doing really well since we've begun using it.

Ian came and gave me a hand digging the last two holes, and then he dug one more for my new replacement frangipani tree. The builders destroyed my last frangipani tree when we were renovating. They leant an old fence against our back fence and it fell over and squished my old frangipani tree to the ground.

While Ian dug holes, I began to plant out the trees. The heaviest part of the whole process was breaking down the clods of clay and dirt so that it could be added to soil additive to make a nice mix for the trees.

Finally all the trees were planted and already they looked great. When the trees mature, it will be an awesome food source for the possums.

I weighed Tamigotchi and he now weighs just under 100 grams, so the new technique is working. He still doesn't seem to be enjoying his dinner, but he does get through it all. I tried introducing him to some leaves and he loved nibbling on them.

During the day, I mustn't have banded Saori's pouch well enough and she managed to squeeze her way out of the bag and then she sat herself in the basket, inside the cupboard. She didn't try to escape or go anywhere and she was very happy to see me when it was time for dinner.

Instalment 25 Sunday 1 May 2011

Last night we attended a friend's 40th surprise birthday party and because I knew we would be there for a number of hours, I had to take the possums. I fed them before we arrived and I left them in the car till I had to feed them about 9:30pm.

The party was great and when it was time to go and feed the babies, I invited one of my friends and a little girl, Kristen, who is 12 years old to join me. I taught Kristen back when she was in Prep and now she is very interested in wild life, so she was very excited. Her mum thinks she might become a vet in the future.

It was lovely to watch my friends' faces light up when they saw the babies. After I fed Saori, I let Kristen hold her. Saori cuddled up in her pouch and went straight to sleep. Kristen enjoyed holding Saori, while I fed Tamigotchi, who was very slow to eat. I had to persist with him. I then let Joy have a hold of him, after he finally finished eating.

Some young children at the party heard about what I was doing and snuck over to the car to watch. Ian was with us as well, so he was able to help keep things quiet so that the babies didn't stress.

I settled the babies back down after my friends had their cuddles and we all returned to the party. I have to be creative when I am out with the possums and they need feeding.

Today was relatively quiet. Towards the end of the day, I gathered up the list of trees that Gillian had compiled for me and I drove to Bunnings to see if they had some for sale.

I ended up buying six new trees, including: about three varieties of myrtles, a grevillea and two callistemons. So I know what I will be doing tomorrow. I kind of got very excited buying the trees because in my head I've been designing an area in our yard to make like a possum playground. I want to encourage them down the middle to back part of our garden because we live on a very busy road.

Instalment 24 Saturday 30 April 2011

Well it seems our new technique is working. Saori has jumped to 65 grams and is happy enough to lay back and suck on her new teat.

That's one positive.

Tamigotchi on the other hand, has gradually lost his fur from his chin and along his tummy. What is left is his bare young skin! I'm a little devo at this, especially finding little bits of his fur in his pouch. He really has had a reaction to the formula. Saori seems to have missed out on this, as well as the urinary infection that Tamigotchi got. Maybe Tamigotchi is a little more sensitive?

Along with this, Tamigotchi is not all that interested in his food. I ended up getting him to drink it, but he is definitely reluctant. Wow, looking after possums certainly has its ups and downs. It's all worth it, but just when you think things are going along well, a change comes along. I guess too, it depends on their little personalities. I hope Tamigotchi is going to be okay. I worry about him sometimes.

I will just continue to be in charge and even if I have to force him to eat, that will be better than him fading away to a shadow. I've just got to keep doing what I am doing and we'll get through this.

Instalment 23 Friday 29 April 2011

It was another early start for me today. I awoke at 4:30am to feed my babies and then I had to drive Ian to work. He'd gone out after work the night before to have a dinner with a couple of mates and the designated driver drove him home, while his motorbike stayed safely tucked away at work. I thought I might have a rest when I got home, but decided to keep on keeping on once I got home.

Since my visit to Gillian's yesterday, I tried to adapt to a new feeding technique which was slow going but I knew with practice I would get better. Well, I hoped I'd get better. I found feeding Saori very hard going with the drip by drip process, so I tried a new teat and I made a very small hold in the end with a safety pin. This seemed to work and by the end of today, Saori's weight had gone from 57 grams to 63 grams. It seemed things were now starting to work.

Instalment 22 Thursday 28 April 2011

Days always end up being so busy and today was no different with another trip to the doctor for me and then off to the shops to get a couple of things.

I had phoned Gillian, my possum mentor earlier in the morning to ask if I could call in to see her and she said she would be home and would be happy for me to call in. I wanted her to take a look at my babies because I was a little worried that Saori did not seem to be putting on any weight. So on the way home I called in to see Gillian and she took a look at them both.

It seems the formula, when it spills out of Tamigotchi's little mouth and trickles under his chin and tummy it reacts with his fur, and Gillian noticed that he has lost some of his fur under his chin. I hadn't noticed this. She said it was not a huge issue. She told me the formula sometimes did that to some of the babies. I did not know this before, so now I decided to make sure to take extra special care and endeavour to make sure things don't leak as much as they had.

Feeding baby possums isn't always as straight forward as you think. Most people probably think, like I did, that you just need to whack some milk in the bottle and pop it in their mouth, but it doesn't work like that at all. I am constantly learning new things along this journey.

Other than this slight set back with regard to his fur, overall, Tamigotchi was doing well and putting on weight like he should.He was now over 80 grams and Gillian said she could see a lot of growth in him. He was all fluffy, warm and cuddly for Gillian when she nursed him. It also seemed as though his toileting issues had all cleared up too.

Next, she took a look at Saori. She agreed that Saori had not put on any weight and decided to feed her and use tissues to measure any spills along the way. She weighed a tissue dry and then after Saori had eaten and some of the spills leaked into the tissue, she weighed the wet tissue. Saori works very hard on the teat and tends to dribble and bubble quite a lot and it is this that runs out of her mouth. After her first feed, Gillian discovered that she had leaked at least 2ml, which is most of her feed! No wonder she is not putting on any weight.

Gillian thought I should try to change the technique that I used to feed Saori. I laughed because I wished I was in more control than I actually was. It is really Saori's technique. I explained to Gillian that Saori loves to stand up and hold onto the syringe when she feeds. It dribbles all down her elbows and down her belly. Anyway, I knew now that I would have to be more in charge and not always let Saori have her way. Gillian suggested that I remove the teat and drip the formula, one drop at a time, into her mouth. This is a very time consuming method, but the way I saw it, I didn't really have a choice.

I bought some new teats off Gillian and was pleased that Gillian was happy with their progress anyway. She enjoyed her cuddles with them too. While I was there, I asked Gillian for a list of trees and bushes that possums love to eat. I had a plan.

It was great catching up with Gillian and as we were leaving, she told me she was off to pick up an older rescued Brushtail possum. How exciting.

We loaded up and headed home while I thought about how much more careful I would need to be a feeding time.