Sunday, January 11, 2015

koala mittens


After the recent bushfires in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales cotton mittens for burned Koala paws are needed. Koalas are often the first victims to perish in a bush fire. Wildlife rescuers find survivors with severe burn injuries to paws, claws, face and ears. It's not uncommon to find koala babies sitting in trees crying, distressed and alone. Doesn't this just tug at your heart?

This post at Down to Earth alerted me to a call out from the International Fund for Animal Welfare group. Handmade cotton mittens are needed for burned Koala paws for daily changing of dressings and application of burn creams.

Finally when the children were asleep and I cleared the dining table, I washed and dried some fabric from my stash and whipped up some soft cotton mittens in the wee twilight hours.

You can download the mitten pattern and find the postal address at IFAW

Update: The call out for Koala mittens has been incredibly successful. Immediate attention is now needed for other Australian native wildlife: Pouch liners for possums, kangaroos and wallabies. A new pattern for pouches will be uploaded soon.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks Zena. I didn't end up making mine when I heard they had enough. I will wait for the pouch pattern now.

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  2. I saw this on Down to Earth as well... oh the poor little things. It does pull at your heart strings. So sad.

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  3. This is such an amazing idea to help those poor little koalas. x

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    1. Thanks Zara. It's such a quick and easy thing to do that really makes a difference.

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  4. This is such a neat thing, how kind of you to do this! And thanks for sharing, I'll definitely follow the link.

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    1. I was searching for ways to help in the community from home. With a little one it's too hard to volunteer locally at this stage. It's great isn't it? These small acts of kindness can help in big ways.

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