Koalas and quolls and Bear—oh my!

November 20, 2019 9:21 PM

An obsessive-compulsive dog who was abandoned as a puppy has a new mission: helping find and save koalas injured in Australia’s recent devastating bushfires. Bear, a Cattle Dog cross-breed, is trained to find both koalas and quolls, another small Australian marsupial, in the wild.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (12 comments total)

Dogs that are bred to do a job, and for them to find a job to do, they will do it so so so very well. They are very good dogs. This very good dog chose a good job. That's a very very very good dog!
posted by hippybear at 9:37 PM on November 20, 2019 [13 favorites]

GOOD BOY, BEAR. GOOD BOY.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 9:42 PM on November 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

TW I came to learn about the good boy but left due to can't handle the bummers in the article
posted by bleep at 9:46 PM on November 20, 2019 [7 favorites]

TW I came to learn about the good boy but left due to can't handle the bummers in the article

Try living in the middle of it.

My parents have been without power today due to heat and ludicrously high winds. There's a fire about 20km from them. Dad's in his 60s, severely bipolar, glaucoma is slowly blinding him, and he's going deaf. Mum works here in Melbourne and might get home on the train if another fire doesn't intersect the line, or the wind doesn't rip a tree through the line.

It's not even that bad in my state. Assuming you make it through the night. Except maybe Mildura (fb link) (Guardian). NSW is fucked. This is the view in Sydney right now.

Our prime minister, when he's not denying the link between bushfires can climate change, reckons we should just go to the cricket instead. I mean, the nation is literally on fucking fire, but let's all have a fucking VB and watch the telly. Our former deputy prime minister reckons it woz the Greens wot dunnit, while the current one reckons only latte-sipping inner city raving lunatics would politicise the situation.

But you know, hate to bum you out, dude.
posted by prismatic7 at 11:11 PM on November 20, 2019 [14 favorites]

It isn't a contest, mate. That Mefite's state has had a couple of bushfires too in the last wee while. I think we can all feel the story is full of bummers, even to the extent that some of us find them too hard to bear, while still having empathy for one another.
posted by GeckoDundee at 2:29 AM on November 21, 2019 [14 favorites]

And I'm sorry to hear about your parents. I hope they're ok.
posted by GeckoDundee at 2:35 AM on November 21, 2019 [7 favorites]

An obsessive-compulsive dog

We should not peoplify animals. What may be a neurosis in a human being may be quite normal behaviour for a dog.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 6:40 AM on November 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

"We should not peoplify animals."

Yes we should. It's one of the simplifications of Reality that allow people to live/get-by. (Until, hopefully, they find a better way)
posted by aleph at 6:49 AM on November 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is such a good dog, thanks for posting Johnny. I saw a terrible video of a woman saving a koala who was literally on fire and whimpering in pain as she poured water on its wounds (don't google it) and it's good to know there's a Good Boy whose out there rescuing the koalas. My heart goes out to all the Australians suffering from these terrible fires, whether they live in houses or not. Hope your politicians (and ours) will wake up before we all burn up.
posted by longdaysjourney at 6:56 AM on November 21, 2019

People have a lot of limitations. (A lot of them self-imposed)
posted by aleph at 6:57 AM on November 21, 2019

15/10, in case you're wondering.
posted by dnash at 11:01 AM on November 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

There is another.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:47 PM on November 22, 2019