Employees of the Unitywater water company in Australia got to live the crafty dream this spring (or should I say autumn? It’s autumn in Australia right now), when knitters from the company were able to knit and deliver 24 pouches to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, to use with their sick, injured, or orphaned animals.
The critter that you see above is Samson, a common brush-tailed possum. He’s snuggling up inside of one of Unitywater’s hand-knitted pouches while he recovers from a punctured lung sustained during a dog attack.
Now, if you’re a knitter, I know the question that you’re squealing to your screen right now, and the answer is no. No, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital does not need you to knit it anymore pouches. It’s got plenty.
However… have you thought about calling up your own local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organization to ask if there’s anything that they’d like for you to make for them? Blankets? Enrichment items? Habitat substitutes? Have you looked up their community wish list to see if there’s anything handmade that would fit the bill?
For instance, WildCare in San Rafael, California, doesn’t need any pouches, but it DOES need knitted nests for baby songbirds! And they even provide you with the pattern for making them! Does an animal rescue near YOU also need knitted nests? If so, I always recommend that you donate locally (I’m weird about shipping things. It’s like I can *feel* all the petroleum being used to get my one random thing from one place to another), but if your own wildlife hospital says no, then you can join the Bay Area WildCare’s 2015 Baby Bird Nest Campaign and knit some nests for them.
Photo credit: Samson in a pouch via Unitywater
Photo credit: Bird in a Knitted Nest via Melanie Piazza
