Feisty little furry friends

Free and moving well up a post for gliding away.

BY AYESHA JOY CLIFFORD ©

WHO ever said life on the farm was dull?

Not me that's for sure.

I was collecting the eggs today when a life and death drama played out right in front of me.

I heard odd noises coming from our old fig tree and looked up to see a large tree snake that has been hanging about the house for a few days, sticking its head into a hole.

Suddenly a ball of fluff came flying out of the hole and landed on the barb-wire fence in front of me. I had the phone out to take photos of the snake but ...

This little fellow escaped one predator only to get caught on barbed-wire. Help was not far away though....

The little glider promptly twirled about in a bit of a daze in the bright light and got some of its floppy side-fur caught around a barb.

I jumped on the four-wheeler and raced to the shed for pliers. When I returned, the glider seemed quite calm, so I proceeded to strip off my shirt to cover its head to stop it biting me while I cut the wire on either side.

This was wildly unsuccessful. We have had these little gliders come in under the eaves often when it's rainy, and they are usually quiet when nestled at the top of the plumbing pipes.

Not today. Understandably feisty after escaping a snake and being caught on wire, the ball of slippery fluff promptly bit me painfully hard while making a huge racket as I was trying to cut the wire.

I admit a few naughty words escaped me before my furry little friend also escaped me, the wire and made a bolt for the nearest post.

I was none too keen by now on trying to catch it, what with bloodied indents from its sharp teeth stinging my finger and evident even through rubbery gloves and those vague thoughts about when my last tetanus jab was.

All this action escaped the attention of the phone camera but it must have been some sight to anyone driving by at the time - a shirtless woman in gumboots, expletives perhaps flying a bit too freely, kneeling in the grass wrestling a “shirt”.

Once free, my furry little escapee scampered up this post, staring at me long enough for this blurry photo, before gliding a few metres away again, and running up a different branch of the fig tree.

I'm not sure what its chances of survival are with any injury. I hardly ever see anything caught on the barbed wire around here apart from me when I'm trying to get through fences.

I lost track of what happened to the snake and just realised the eggs are still lying out in the rain.

Enough excitement now - I have one very sore finger and I'm staying in for the rest of the day for a keyboard workout - but I am thinking of you my little furry friend with every painful tap of the finger...

Good luck little one. I so hope you make it!