‘I knew someone needed me’: Volunteer saves orphaned joey trio
Three orphaned joeys have been given a second chance at life after being rescued from a tragically common accident.
NSW
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After being found vulnerable and alone by the roadside, orphaned nine-month old joeys Matilda, Mac and Molly have been given a second chance at life.
All three were rescued from their mothers’ pouches by members of the public after being hit by cars in the mid-north coast, and all are being handfed by Fawna volunteer Jenny Edwards.
“It’s really busy,” Jenny said of raising the joeys.
“When I first got them in, they were on four hourly feeds, so that meant a couple of times during the night for a feed just like a newborn baby,” she said.
“Now they’re getting a little bit bigger I can space it out a bit, but it’s still five feeds a day and one overnight feed.”
All three joeys were found in Old Bar and brought to wildlife rescue charity Fawna, which relies on donations and volunteers to rescue and rehabilitates native wildlife on NSW’s mid-north coast.
Jenny has volunteered with the charity for six years and said taking care of the joeys has been “a motivator to get out of bed” since receiving a serious ankle injury.
“I knew someone needed me, that’s what it was for me,” she said.
The joeys are expected to stay with Jenny “for six to eight months and then they’ll go to another carer for another four months,” she said.
Fawna vice president Kym Kilpatrick encouraged drivers in the region to be “extra careful at dawn and dusk” to prevent joeys like Matilda, Mac and Molly from being orphaned.
“If you do hit a wallaby or see a wallaby that’s been injured or killed, stop and check pouches because quite often we can save joeys,” Kym said.
“Even if we can’t, we can prevent what would otherwise be a very slow and quite awful death.”