One dark evening not so long ago, I was driving back along a winding road after shopping down near the city and almost ran over a koala who was loping across. I'm glad nobody was directly behind me at the time because I instinctively slammed on my brakes and might've caused an accident. As it was, a few other cars banked up behind me while I waited for him to make his slow progress. Those drivers must've seen him too because nobody honked me and we all waited very patiently until he was across. He was dragging one of his back paws behind him in a funny way so he must've had an injury. Other than that, he looked very fat and cuddly and healthy.

We've seen a few koalas high up in trees from time to time and they're a rare enough sight for people to stop and stare, and point them out to others. They're quite funny because they tend to sit wedged behind very slender twigs and we all wonder how they could possibly hold their weight. However, I've seen no tumbling koalas as yet, so they must quickly clutch the bark with their sharp claws if they feel they might be falling. 

Other than koalas, we get lots of wonderful bird life here in the Hills. At their old house before I left home, my parents used to get several laughing kookaburras. I don't know if the North American kingfishers laugh the same way as our kookaburras. If not, it's got to be heard to be believed. Dad liked them so much he built a feeding tray in the middle of the yard and used to buy cheap pet mince from the shop to feed them. Every early evening at the same time, about a dozen kookaburras would swoop down to the trees to wait for him. If Dad was slow coming out at the right time, they'd make such a din with their laughing and cackling that all the neighbours would know about it too. Friends used to try to time their visits to catch the daily 'feeding of the kookaburras'. It was really lovely, but sometimes a bit of a pain when we were out for the day. Whenever about 5.30 came around, Dad would fret, "The kookaburras will be disappointed." Whenever we went off on holiday, he always tried to get the neighbours to feed them.

Eventually, when we kids had all moved out of home, the house and yard became too big for my parents and they sold it. Dad told the new buyers about the kookaburras and even wrote down where to purchase the meat. They promised to keep up the tradition. Every so often when we see a lone kookaburra around the place with the kids, I feel a bit sad because they hadn't even been born when their Papa had his kookaburra feeding ritual going.

Before I stop, I've just to mention something about emus. They are such quaint birds, but can be a bit scary if they strut over to you with their stern expressions and deep voices. My brother had an emu peck once when he was a boy, and I've heard it was quite dramatic. Some of the emus are actually taller than we are. And boy, can they run! "Emu Oil or Ointment" is one the remedies for eczema and other skin complaints for sale over here, but don't ask me how it's acquired.

I'll finish off with one of my true stories, this time from friends of some of Andrew's old friends, who used to work at the hospital with him. It seems these people wanted to start an emu farm, so they drove way up to the outback to purchase a big male and female to begin their stock. On their way home, they put the birds in a horse float while they drove along the highway. You can imagine their shock and horror on their first stop a few hours down the road, when they went to check and found two crumpled, headless emus lying dead on the bottom of the horse float. It seems the birds had been poking their long necks out of the horse float and some of the huge Mack trucks or road trains whizzing past had knocked them off. I really had the heebie-jeebies when I heard that, so I'm sorry if I've upset anyone else. The buyers were more upset about their loss of thousands of dollars than they were about the birds themselves. It seems breeding emus aren't cheap. I guess if this was some sort of fable, the moral could be, "Don't put your emus in a horse float"

By the way, we get plenty of kangaroos around the place too but I'll mention more about them another time.