Bonny and the Wombat.

Bonny was a Kelpie/ Collie cross, a real Australian cattle dog. We got her just as a little pup. She was just a "new to the world" puppy when this incident that I am about to relate took place. The type of pup that would still wee with excitement when you patted her and too young to have learnt to come when she was called. Anyway this is the story. At the time we were living in the bush, (The bush is an Australian description of out of town with no close neighbors). We lived in what was called a "Miners Cottage", a small square house with the front door in the middle and very basic. The house had been moved on to the block of land in the bush and it was still sitting on the stumps without any surrounding dog boards. (in otherwords the foundations had not yet been covered in.)
A wombat had decided too come and dig a bit of a hole underneath the house, not a deep hole as they usually do but just enough for him to dissapear and not be seen. The gap under the house was about 18 inches or so in height. Crawling in there was OK but there was not much room. Now this particular morning Bonny was running around on the front lawn at about 6 am. I had put her outside early, trying to teach her what all pups must learn and the sooner the better. The wombat happened to still be out on the lawn somewhere as well. Wombats are very nocturnal and usually stay out of sight during the day. When the wombat saw me it bolted towards the house, heading for the hole underneath. Poor little Bonny saw the wombat running towards her and started to run towards the house as well. Little Bonny, all confused and scared raced in under the house ahead of the wombat, and skidded down into the wombat hole. The wombat raced in as well and jammed little Bonny down in the hole. (It is common knowledge in Australia that the wombats main tool of defence is to crush anything that enters its abode up against the top of its burrow. Many a dog has died this way as the wombat has immense strength. The Australian Aboriginees used to send their small children down holes to try to dislodge wombats and many of their children died for the same reason). Well I quickly crawled in under the house and all I could hear were very muffled squeaks and gasps from little Bonny. She actually sounded very bad, no barking or yapping just slow growns. I knew that the situation was very grim. I couldnt even see the wombat, and Bonny was down underneath the wombat anyway. I quickly climbed out and ran in to get my wife Carol. She was still in bed and she hurried out to help me. Now I have to explain here what we were wearing so that the reader can put their imagination to work as the story unfolds. Carol had a small, short nightie on, I had nothing but a dressing gown (without a cord to tie it up !) Well we both crawled in under the house to the wombat hole. By now Bonny was hardly making any sound, just a sort of agonising high pitch choking sound and getting softer by the second. No matter what we did we could not make any impression on the wombat. I could reach in and touch it but this made it push down even harder. I felt around and by scratching some of the soil away with my fingers I could feel the wombat's back legs. I said to Carol, this is my plan, its all we can do. I will reach in and get a good grip with each hand on to the wombats back legs. When I get into position, on the count of three, I will heave and hopefully pull the wombat out, if I do, you will have to reach down and grab Bonny from the hole. I explained that she would have to move like lightning as the wombat may return to the hole and could injure her badly if she had any part of her body in the hole. I hoped that the element of surprise may enable me to pull the wombat out momentarily. Normally no-one could expect to possibly be able to hold a wombat back if its feet were on the ground. They are very very powerful. Carol got herself into position, we were both completely covered in dirt and with what we were both wearing, or NOT wearing really, we were very lucky that no-one visits at 6am in the morning ! I reached down and dug with my fingers around the wombats back feet. I could feel the legs quite well then and managed to get a real good grip on both legs. By now I must add, Bonny had fallen silent, there were no more signs of life. I said to Carol, on the count of three, I will heave on the wombat and pull it out of the hole. As any good Aussie bushman will tell you, just about an impossible task. Well I counted to three and gave a huge pull, I shot backwards and the wombat, taken completely by surprise came out of the hole and landed on top of me. On top of my naked body with the dressing gown out behind me like Superman's cape. The timing was superb, Carol reached into the hole, grabbed little Bonny, or should I say little Bonny's now limp and motionless body. Carol pulled out Bonny and straight back into the hole shot the wombat, there was no way that I could have stopped it. Well we ran inside with Bonny and we laid her on the floor in front of our kerosene heater. Her little brown body was still, no sign of breathing or any response of any sort. We were both very upset and we assumed that she was dead and I suppose we could not have expected any other outcome. We dried her little body and cleaned away the mud and dirt and we noticed a little twinge and saw that he lungs had moved a little bit. We gently squeezed her small chest back and forth for a time and very gradually she started to breathe again. After about an hour she re-gained consiosness and to our amazement looked around and sat up. She could not walk anywhere however for a long while but after a few days made a full recovery. We had Bonny for a further 12 years and some of my previous stories relate good times we spent with her. But, as this story explains, we were all very very lucky that day. Nowadays my wife quite often laughs when she decribes to our friends what I looked like wearing nothing but a dressing gown, strung out like a Superperman cape, covered in mud and dirt. I then remind her just how she looked as well on that exciting morning. A morning that I will never forget.