Operation Possum Rescue

Plumbing Boy radioed in yesterday afternoon in great excitement, "come out the front & have a look, there are 2 Magpies trying to beat up a possum"!  Office assistant & I rush out to find this poor little guy hanging on to the fence out the front of the office for dear life.

They were trying to peck out his eyes!!!  They got his ear too....  I know not everyone loves possums, but he's a native ring tail possum.  Assistant shooed the Magpies away, I grabbed a towel & held it over his head/body to stop him climbing further up the fence; assistant went & grabbed a plumber (to help grab him!) & a box once the Maggies had decided to leave us alone.  

Once safely in the box, I called the RSPCA who put me onto Wildlife Victoria who asked me if I could drop him off to a local vet where he spent the night nursing a possible broken rib (maybe the Maggies pushed him out of the tree!!!!).  They thought his eye would be OK.  Looks like we rescued him just in time.  

He's a fully grown adult male. Today he'll be collected by a carer who lives 1 suburb away who will look after him until he's well enough to be returned to the wild (after Magpie swooping season has passed!) & will be put back in the tree in front of our factory.  I don't know if he's been living there or was visiting from a nearby tree, but it is preferred to return them to their natural habitat, which is generally where they were found.

Operation rescue complete it was time to head to the supermarket where I ended up parking a car for a young P plater who'd driven in to a park on such an angle then tried to reverse back out (to straighten up) that she was about 1cm from the car next to her on a very odd angle.  I explained that she needed to pull forward & the direction she needed to turn her wheels in order for the car to move away from the adjacent car, but she was just too scared & asked me to do it.  Mum & (possibly) sister were still in the car, so I jumped in & parked it for them.  Mission accomplished!  

It's been rather wet & cold here this week; not so conducive to plumbing.  We have been able to (mostly) find indoor work (or at least undercover work) so the guys aren't out in it.  Only one with a cold this week, but no sick days, just sent home early for a snooze.  The 3 weeks prior we've had multiple people with multiple sick days.  So far Plumbing Boy & I have escaped the germs.  Hopefully the weather will be kinder next week as we hope to start a big roofing job!