Gutted

Lofty often takes the wee ones out for a bracing walk in the pram before I'm awake of a morning. A few weeks ago he came back wild-eyed and frantic, spitting out -- with much hand-waving -- chunks of a story that took me some time to piece together.

As it turns out, they were on one of the lovely bikeways we have in the area when Lofty spotted a crow swoop down and pluck something off the adjacent soccer field. Looked like a rat or other small creature; he didn't think much of it and kept walking.

The crow flew up in a great arc, landing on a branch over the path. Whatever it was carrying dropped and landed right in the pram.

The "thing", as it turns out, wasn't a rat or small animal at all, but the decomposing gut of something larger, possibly a possum, and was oozing with semi-digested goop from the tear down its length. And it landed right on little Edie's face.

Little Edie is very difficult to get to sleep at times, and she'd only just dropped off after a couple of hours' solid screaming. As it hit she let out a god-awful shriek which brought not only Lofty but two other nearby walkers rushing. The thing hit her across the eye and seeped goo all over her face and down her neck; thankfully missing her mouth. Lofty snatched her up, one of the walkers bravely scooped the goo out of the pram with a couple of leaves, and together they all ran up to the shopping centre to wash her off. There's a camaraderie among early morning walkers.

It hit hard enough to leave a red mark for several days. So young to learn about the cruelties of the world.