Just call me St Francis...

It seems there is no limit to my attractant powers over our furry and feathered friends.

I have already banged on incessantly about my 'possum whisperer' status, when my Brunswick bathroom became something of a right-of-way to local possums seeking to get from the trees and rooftops back down to the ground again.

Well, now it seems the birds are starting to feel strangely called into my orbit. First, I have been woken up at obscenely early hours (well, before 7am!) by a bird that I suspect must be nesting in the eaves just outside my bedroom window. At the appointed time each morning for a couple of weeks, I was woken up by the sounds of scratching, scraping and flapping of wings that sounded, to my half asleep brain, to be disturbingly close. Fortunately, this unique alarm clock seems to have desisted, but last night marked the latest in my adventures in animal husbandry.

There was an Elders' meeting in my lounge room, and as we were spending some time in prayer at the start of the meeting, we were confronted with a loud scruffling noise, coming from the fire place. "Sounds like Santa is coming early!" I quipped.

More scruffling, and a few puffs of soot emanating from the vent of the wood heater firebox indicated that there was indeed some poor critter trapped in the flue of the wood heater.

Being a group of 4 women, we discussed our options- call the local shire ranger to deal with it? No way they'd come out at night... a chimney sweep? (who just happened to be the former tenant of this house)- didn't answer his phone... well, maybe we'll just continue with the meeting, and see what happens.

By the end of the meeting, and after a few more instances of fluttering and puffs of soot out of the vents, it became evident that it was indeed a bird that had managed to get into this sticky situation, and that it had actually managed to free itself from the flue, and was now happily perched on the piece of wood inside the wood heater.

So, our intrepid group sprung into action, closing off all doors, so that the only way was out, and armed with a towel, to humanely try to grab the bird, we opened the door of the wood heater. The bird didn't come quietly, and rather than allowing us to gently capture it in the towel, it flew out of the firebox, and floundered sootily around the loungeroom for a bit, perching first on the blade of the ceiling fan (and was I glad that we thought to turn the fan off first!), then on top of the curtains... and finally managed to find the door to the hallway, and then the open front door to safety.

I think it will be an Elders' meeting that will be remembered for a long time (for the entertainment value, if nothing else)!