![\"ikps-helen\"](\"http:\/\/ajwcef.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ikps-helen.jpg\")
Koalas have no road sense, and don\u2019t usually recognize a dog as an enemy until after it attacks. They just want to climb trees, eat, sleep and reproduce. Unfortunately, in the process, they manage to get themselves into all sorts of weird situations and predicaments:\n…like the thirsty koala who fought a doberman for water rights. What is unusual is that this time the koala won. The dog ended up cowed and whimpering, (and very sore), huddled in his kennel, while the koala drank his fill from the dog\u2019s bowl. (The dog\u2019s owner rang to ask me to remove the vicious animal from her yard \u2013 I was tempted to take the dog)!
\n…and the young male koala determined to go to school. He tried to enter Camira State School but didn\u2019t go through the gate like most students, didn\u2019t climb over the fence like some naughty students, but tried going through the fence. He got his head well and truly stuck in the fence \u2013 twice in the same week! He obviously didn\u2019t learn his lesson the first time.
\n…and the koala who got on a train at Rosewood station without purchasing a ticket, (probably felt he didn\u2019t need one as he did not take up a seat). He was \u2018apprehended\u2019 and \u2018forcibly removed\u2019 from the train at Walloon station \u2013 for fare evasion. Actually, this caused a bit of a dilemma \u2013 where to return him. Where he was coming from, or where he was going to?
\n…and the one who ended up in the security office on the Amberley RAAF base, (this is a bit of a worry because this koala not only breached security but had our trained, fearless defense force personnel terrified – they actually locked me in with him until I had him safely in custody).
\n\u2026..and the mother and baby, (small back-rider), who were sitting in the middle of the road \u2018for ages\u2019 but had disappeared by the time the rescuer got there. Finally located mum up a very tall tree, without her baby. Definitely not on her back, cuddled close to her belly or safely ensconced in her pouch. Four people spent over an hour searching the underbrush by torchlight, at 2 o\u2019clock in the morning, for the \u2018dropped\u2019 baby \u2013 and all that time mum, (with baby safely attached), was sitting in a very small tree just above our heads, close enough to touch, watching the search. It turned out to be a classic case of mistaken identity. The koala we first located was a male, (which explains why there was no baby on his back or in his pouch). Mum, bub and the imposter were all doing well\u2026\u2026\u2026but for how long? Their habitat on the other side of the road had been bulldozed just the day before.
\nNow that you\u2019ve had your laugh\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026let\u2019s get serious! Every koala rescuer has similar stories, or variations of them \u2013 the \u2018if it wasn\u2019t so sad it would be funny\u2019 type stories. We\u2019ve all witnessed the confusion experienced by our simple-minded koalas when \u2018civilization\u2019 is imposed on them; when \u2018progress\u2019 reaches their small part of the world; when their small world disappears, almost literally, overnight.<\/p>\n