A Patchwork of Pink | Media
A Patchwork of Pink
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24.01.2022 My invalid feathered family has increased. In addition to my daily influx of 'ever-hopeful', perfectly healthy birds, 'Libby' the ibis with a broken leg, (shown in photo with her ever-present, greedy husband who hangs around like a bad smell waiting to steal all her food), two cockatoos suffering early-stage beak and feather disease, three or four kurrawongs' with advanced scaly-mite diseased legs, I now have the pleasure of helping a little female mud-lark...or 'pee-wee' as ...they're often called, with a badly injured foot. I can't make out whether it's been broken, or has a bad infection---either way she can't stand on it and obviously is in a deal of pain. I've been feeding her for around two weeks now, so sometimes she will allow me to get very close. I plan to catch her as soon as feasible, and get her to a vet to see if anything can be done. But they're such timid birds, I really need a large net. If I frighten her away by attempting to catch her by hand, fear may prevent it ever returning, and the suffering will continue with no prospect of help. Then, this morning, Colin and his wife arrived with a third little cockatoo with beak and feather disease (shown in photo I took). It really is tragic. It's such a hideously cruel disease. This poor little darling shows the virus to be more advanced. Sadly, I can do nothing except hope this baby returns for food with increasing regularity, so that---like my precious 'Charlie' who's heartbreaking final days I have described in chapter 36 of my memoir 'A Patchwork of Pink'--- www.bevarnold.org ---I can build its trust until eventually I can catch it and have it euthanised humanely, before it suffers the inevitable slow terrible death that awaits. See more
23.01.2022 It's impossible to personally thank each person individually for the many beautiful comments I've received, and for those who have emailed how much they enjoyed reading my memoir. To all of you, my sincerest thanks. It's impossible to put into words the heartwarming boost such comments give to one's morale. Thank you, again.
20.01.2022 Just an update whilst the covid-19 isolation continues. The local birds pay the current confinement laws no heed and arrive to voice their demands daily. To help catch the little mud-lark mentioned in my previous post, suffering, what appeared to be, a badly injured foot causing it a great deal of pain, I ordered online a large fishing scoop-net with extendable handle, and found a veterinary surgery who donated me an unwanted old-style metal cat-carrier cage with a top-openi...Continue reading
02.01.2022 I'm one of these odd-bods who is quite happy living alone with my feathered and four-legged friends, so the current covid19 precautions enforcing my confinement at home, really hasn't made a massive difference to my life. If anything, with others around me also confined to their home front, I almost feel that I 'belong'. I'm just one of the crowd---'normal'. But my feathered friends didn't get the message to stay away, and so they keep coming, and life goes on. I'm still wait...ing for an opportune moment to catch the little mud-lark with the injured foot and get her to the vet. Unfortunately, they're so very timid it's proving a challenge. I'm shopping for a large, fishing scoop-net, but this crisis now has many likely stockists, closed, and Kmart only had 'butterfly' nets, which are far too small. I'll keep trying. Colin the cockatoo and his wife, Chloe,...(yes, at last she has a name), arrived yesterday with their two 'beak and feather' diseased, sick charges---shown in the photo sharing a dish of husk-free sunflower seeds. The poor little darling in the foreground shows its beak deformity to be more advanced than that of it's friend. The clearly elongated top beak is now starting to seriously impede its ability to eat. Obviously I can't, but the temptation is to nip the tip off with wire-cutters. This baby is getting braver with my presence, and yesterday, as long as I kept my eyes averted, approached close enough to eat whilst I was holding the dish toward it at arm's length. Trouble I now have, is that Colin and Chloe have decided that the husk-free sunflower seeds are so much nicer than those I normally buy for them, and have begun turning their nose up at these, and stealing the more expensive seed left for the sick pair. These shots of Colin and Chloe---with another who tagged along to the party, show them displaying strong objection to the camera flash by tossing forward their gorgeous sulphur crests. See more
01.01.2022 Written with honesty cushioned by lashings of humour, in her memoir 'A Patchwork of Pink', author, Bev Arnold, tells of her life, and her experience with breast cancer, interwoven with her sometimes tragic, often hilarious, interactions with the local wildlife. Penned with view to offering support to the thousands of other women being diagnosed with breast cancer, '...the book is as much a love story about Australia as it is...about the trials of breast cancer.' US Review of Books www.bevarnold.org
