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143 13 Manuela ONE morning I was just getting ready for my daily routine of observation, when a young man who seemed to be on an urgent errand suddenly appeared. Since he didn’t appear inclined to let me know what the problem was, I sent him off to Mrs. Schwallbach. A few minutes later, he returned with both her and Kathrin, and I learned that he had run over a kangaroo in the bush and required our help. There was no more discussion, and we set off without further delay. We soon found ourselves on a long tour through the bush on a clay-colored road that turned this way and that like a snake. Overhead, the sky shone through in an intense blue from the tops of the trees as they flew past us. The sun’s rays radiated here and there through branches and twigs to the bush below, forming a pattern of sharp thorns that strongly reminded one of abstract paintings. The route itself was very bad, and we passengers were tossed about like so many tin cans. But all that was nothing compared to the concern I felt for the kangaroo, which was probably pretty badly injured. How could we transport it? I asked myself. Most likely it was a wild animal and for that reason extremely shy. Would I be in a position to give it first aid? I’d never been in this kind of situation before. One thing was quite clear: We would have to get the animal back on its feet. My excitement threw me back into a dream world, to the time when I had last come across an injured kangaroo. I felt an inner emptiness, and this confused me. 9781563685590_My Life with Kangaroos.indd 143 4/8/13 11:04 AM 144 MY LIFE WITH KANGAROOS The vehicle braked abruptly, and we soon discovered the injured animal in the ditch. It was a fully grown female; I knelt down next to it and felt its body. Its arms and hind legs were already cold, the eyes lusterless and dull. I felt the animal’s chest near the heart29 to try to find a heartbeat, but without avail. The animal had probably died of shock. Then I felt the creature’s pouch, and there I felt something move! “It’s alive!” I cried, and the others ran over to me. Carefully I lifted the baby from the pouch, which had already seen quite a bit of dirt. The baby was naked, rosy, and blind, about fifteen centimeters long, and at this moment quite defenseless against the merciless sun and the cold wind, so I quickly wrapped it in a piece of linen, and we drove home. When Mrs. Schwallbach set eyes on the baby, she simply shook her head. She had brought up a whole series of young animals in her time. It would not have much chance of survival, she said, but we agreed that I would nevertheless try to help it pull through. Perhaps my wishes for its survival were unrealistic, but this tiny, helpless creature clung so much to my heartstrings that I couldn’t regard myself as anything but its “mother.” (Indeed, in my fantasy I saw this little one as a “gray goose” waddling after me as if I were Konrad Lorenz.) We began assembling everything that was necessary for the care of a baby kangaroo: small bowls, drop measurers, a small cooking pot, milk, a flask, and a small woolen pouch. Mrs. Schwallbach gave us a clothes hanger, an old blouse, and a dressing gown and showed us how to make a proper pouch out of it. I was able to wash the small creature in our hut, and this I did very gently with a damp cloth, later placing it in the woolen bag. After that, we had to think about preparing the baby’s formula. The milk had to be diluted with water and boiled with a pinch of salt. Then it had to cool to the right temperature before it could be fed to the baby. 29. In kangaroos, the heart is found not on one side, as in human beings, but in the middle . It is situated directly at the thoracic vertebrae, and thanks to this feature, it is particularly protected from shaking when the animals hops. 9781563685590_My Life with Kangaroos.indd 144 4/8/13 11:04 AM [3.145.105.105] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 09:34...

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