And just like that, we are coming to the end of another year....
It has been a year of hard work, attending copious calls for wildlife needing help and caring for numerous native lives who find themselves at one of our two Bohollow Shelters. For my family and I at our founding Bohollow Wildlife Shelter at Bunbartha, it’s been a year of extra hard work repairing flood damage and attempting to find our feet again after a few very difficult years. We still have a long way to go before everything is totally back to normal, but we are making progress.
We are at the halfway mark for the chaotic baby bird season. Deb has taken on a few of the baby birds this season to lessen our load here a little but home at the moment is awaking to the incessant calls of nestling and fledgling birds, all demanding they be the first fed. There are no mornings of lazily easing into the day at this time of year!
As always, our year has been full of many highs and lows as the never ending roller coaster ride of wildlife care and rescue marches on. The amount of wildlife who find themselves in trouble and need a helping hand never seems to dwindle and as the wildlife caring fraternity is currently very short in numbers on the ground, we get called further and further afield, pushing our resources even further beyond our limit.
If you require our assistance and we cannot attend immediately, please be patient. Little things like being able to transport to us and following advice on what you can do until one of us can get there or a critter can get to the shelter, can make a massive difference to both us and the animal concerned.
If we sound tired, it is because we are more than tired, we are downright fatigued and your call may be one of many we have tended to that day. If you cannot get a critter to us, fear not, we will get to you, but if it takes hours, please don’t get impatient with us, or worse, treat us with contempt. We live, breathe and walk the walk of being a 24/7 rescue and care service for wildlife. Our hearts hurt more than most when we cannot attend immediately for whatever reason or if a rescue goes wrong or if the kindest thing we can do for an animal is humanely end their pain.
Wildlife rescue is a team effort and begins with you, the general public. For every one of you who choose to stop for that injured bird or roo on a roadside, for everyone of you who finds a fallen nest in your garden, a bird hanging up a tree entangled in fishing line at a remote camp-site, creek or river, for each and every one of you who care enough about the living creatures who have been walking this land well before we were, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Keeping up with the financial expense of what we do is always a struggle. To the kind hearted people who reach into their pockets each year to donate and contribute to the costs of our wildlife work, we and all the critters who pass through Bohollow’s care, are eternally grateful. Without your donations and help, we could not keep our doors open.
Deb, myself and all of our extended Bohollow family who work diligently both out in public and behind the scenes, all wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas/New Year period and we will be back in 2026 with more Bohollow stories and updates to share.
Until then, may your bird baths remain full and your hearts continue to care.
Kirsty
