The Cellar Image of the Day

These pictures are being passed around on the email grapevines down here. They came with the following explanation:

Quote:

It has been so hot in South Australia for over a week…40+ degrees Celsius everyday, very dry also.

This guy lives at Maude [200 km NE of Adelaide. ZG]. His wife sent him these photos of a little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat relief. She filled up a bucket and this is what happened!

Step 2: Empty one (1) packet of marinate into the water and gently stir so as not to disturb the little bugger.
Step 3: Let soak for 40 minutes.
∙∙∙
Step 8: Remove foil and serve with cold beer.

aHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh... Is clearly what he's thinking.

(Now if someone would hand him some youcalleepeedus he'd be all fixed up.)

Sorry the eucalyptus tastes weak, all the trees have been drained...

...boiled the sap down for cough syrup.

Great photos, I feel his pain. it has been 42 degrees here the last couple of days and this Sunday will reach 47 where I live. For a day it will be the hottest place on the Planet. The water in the pool is 33 degrees celcius, hardly worth it.

so cute!

except for the strange alien mouthy appendages. and the actual appendages.

I have only ever experienced -8c once when I went up the mountains in winter. However I used to work in freezers that would get to -16c but I dont think that counts.

WTF? No one has posted "I haz a bukket, eh,mate" or "nise hooman share bukket"?

RFN it is 10.24 am and 40 degrees. Probably hotter where this little feller lives. Cool change some time this arvo.

I want one. A Koala that it. I haz a bukkit -I found one in the lolrus enclosure.

After he finishes his beer, chop up a couple of onions into that water and bring the heat up reeeeeeeeaaaalllll slow for about 10 hours and.....

CROCKED KOALA!!!

Several cow orkers found the middle picture to be disturbing on some level. I have left it up as the screen background on the work computer.

It replaced Thomas Jefferson. I have no idea why a picture of Thomas Jefferson had been the screen background for the last week.

I hate to upset the Koala bucket, but apparently Koalas don't taste very good. A lot like a mouth full of cough medicine gone wrong.

I imagine there'd be a lot of dead baby birds with the heat they're having down south.

Anyway, I'll take my depressing comments somewhere else. I don't know what made me think of that right now, but I've depressed myself with the thought.

They are cute, but soooo nasty when they want to be.

I have scars to prove it, I tried to rescue one off the road and the ungrateful hooer near took my knee off.

I dont hold a grudge though....still cute.

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Even cuter than the original cuteness.

For some reason I hear him with a German accent though.
I have no idea why.

"Wasser? Bitte? Kann ich etwas Wasser haben?

It's a plot. This guy is getting their water, a couple of miles up the road, the bicyclists will suffer dehydration and be forced to stop because they gave all their water to the cute teddy bear-like creature ... then the rest of the pack will descend upon the unwary, dessicated cyclists and strip their bones clean.

And everybody will blame the dingos.

Because something as cute as a koala can't be that dangerous ...

lmao.

I think you're right, wolf, and I'm frightened. What cute cuddlers in the States are pulling the very same stunt?

He's lucky that koala didn't try and run up his leg. He wouldn't be so 'cute' then. lol

Give 'em half a chance and they'll kill you and everyone you love.

I've seen a grown man hospitalised, (koala clawed the inside of his forearm open) trying to pick up a wild koala.

You want hot, wet koalas? Want to see them in pools, in pond, getting wild with bowls and bottles and, god help us, watering cans? See creative new uses for kitchen implements? Click here!!!111!!! Must be over 18 months.

Yeah seriously.

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Okay I fooled with that last one a bit.

But seriously, there are 22 photos of people hand-watering Koalas, all taken in the Adelaide area during the last heatwave. We are a bunch of softies really.

Damm, look at the claws on that bugger.

Oh, and I can't believe Cellars have stolen that picture and doctored it up with naughty comments.

I've read that those little suckers can actually be quite nasty, even when completely unprovoked. Still, I think it's be cool to have em hangin around the yard.

They are very noisy in mating season. They make a really horrible grunting noise that goes on all night long, and is very difficult to sleep through, and it's true that they can do some damage. If for some reason they come down from the trees and then they get a fright and you happen to be the closest thing that looks like a tree, they'll run up your leg and rip it to shreds.

I wouldn't say they're particularly vicious though. Mostly if they're on the ground they're putting most of their effort into thinking about going back up a tree for a feed and a snooze. They spend something like 70% of their time sleeping.

The group that gets the most damage from koalas are tourists who think they can just go over and pat them if they're on the ground or down low. Those things have claws! Leave them alone!!!

The email I got that picture with came via a firefighter, and said the little feller got through three bottles of water before he was done.

I find it a very touching picture; the burnt out bush, the tired, hard fireman, so tenderly caring for the little koala, with such anthropomophic posture and body language between them.

I can only guess that the fire there was less intense - there is unburnt bracken in the background, and a crown fire kills everything up to the tree tops, including the koalas.

I got the email showing the pictures you posted from a friend in Australia last Monday (the 3rd) but the pictures of the bicycle riders and the picture of the fireman I found on the net. There's been tons of pictures posted on the net, mostly very sad, some down right frightening, but a few heart warming like the fireman.

[opinion] Most Aussies are salt of the Earth, strong character, types, that will take this disaster in stride and bounce back smarter and stronger.[opinion]

That Koala with the firefighter is now famous. That incident in the photo was also captured on video, and the TV news followed the story.
She was quite trusting of humans, was patted, picked up, named Sam, taken to an animal rescue volunteer's house, her burns treated (on the kitchen floor), and has been placed with another koala with whom she has bonded. She'll be in care for up to 7 months, they reckon.

This is aimed both to Cellar Dwellars, and especially to the many visitors who pop in for the Image of the Day.

I know we should prioritise human welfare in such a disaster but the charitable response to human need has been amazing and there hasn't been as much media attention on the impact on wildlife. Unlike human care agencies, wildlife carers receive NO government funding and desperately need supplies to care for the bushfire victims.

A friend of mine with links to animal welfare groups (sensible ones like RSPCA, not PETA) has provided me with this list of legitimate groups caring for injured and displaced wildlife.

So, if you want to help the koalas and kangaroos and all the other cute furry critters which are injured, homeless and faced with starvation, please donate to any of the following.

Quote:

Donations can be made on line.

Wildlife Victoria: www.wildlifevictoria.org.au

AWARE (Australian Wildlife Assistance Rescue and Education) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~beaware/Index.html

WRAP Wildlife (Wildlife Rescue and Protection) http://www.wrap.org.au/

BADGER Emergency Wildlife Rescue Gippsland & District http://www.wildlifeshelter.org.au/gippsland.htm

WRIN (Wildlife Rescue and Information Network) http://www.wrin.asn.au/links.htm

Help for Wildlife http://www.helpforwildlife.com/

I went to one earlier today, and when it got to "state or territory" for where I am, all I got was Aussie territories. I did pick US as country previously.

I'll check more when I feel up to it. Thanks for the llinks Zen.

Quote:

Sam the koala, made famous by footage of her drinking from a firefighter's water bottle during Victoria's bushfires, has died.

The badly burned koala became a symbol of hope for the survivors of the deadly bushfires that killed 173 people and left 7,500 homeless.

But just months after her rescue from the fires, Sam was diagnosed with cysts linked to the life-threatening disease chlamydia that has ravaged the koala population.

The four-year-old koala was due to have surgery on Thursday to remove the cysts but John Butler of the Morwell Vet Clinic discovered Sam had severe changes in her urinary and reproductive tract that were non-operable.

"Unfortunately Sam has been put to sleep. It's very, very sad," said Peita Elkhorne of TressCox Lawyers on behalf of the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter.

"It was so severe that there was no possible way to be able to manage her pain."

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was sad to hear of Sam's death.

"When I travelled to London for the G20 summit in early April, the symbol of hope for so many people around the world was the great picture of that wonderful koala being fed water by one of our firefighters," he said.

"I think that gave people of the world a great sense that this country Australia could come through those fires.

"Sam the koala was part of the symbolism of that and it's tragic Sam the koala is no longer with us."

Awwwwwwww. Still, like you say - nature is cruel and at least any pain is over.

Ali's boys sent me a koala (toy) which is Diz's new best friend.
He doesn't worry it at all, but if it's anywhere in the house other than the drawer under my bed (Diz's current sleeping space of choice) Diz will search and remedy.

But the thing is, when it arrived, I commented to my Dad on the incongruity of receiving a koala from an Australian. For the split second of time I was speaking rather than thinking, I had decided that they were a Kiwi creature...

(Please note - Australia and New Zealand have very close ties with the UK - I for one have a Kiwi Auntie by marriage - this really was just a brain fart rather than ignorance!)