Before the Walls Came Down

The call came mid-morning and nothing, and we mean nothing, could have prepared us for what would follow. A demolition worker, we learned, had arrived to raze a derelict house. But behind its walls he found something no demolition brief had prepared him for.

Life. In so many forms.

Rats of various colours, some having recently given birth. Sweet little rabbits, many with adorable lop ears and the softest of hues. Tiny quail and other small birds who fitted into the palms of our hands whilst nestling into our hearts. And curious chickens scratching through the debris for anything that remotely resembled food.

All tiny beings abandoned amongst conditions almost beyond description. With the house soon coming down and the clock ticking, all the crew could do was stand around and wait.

And then one man did something that would change everything.

He refused to look away.

Despite call after call to the authorities responsible for such situations, no one was able or willing to take them.

And then our phone rang.

Whilst most of these animals fell well outside the usual remit of Edgar’s Mission we knew we would have to find a way. And standing inside that house, “not our kind of animal” became impossible words to even consider.

We found animals in heartbreaking condition, yet what struck us almost as deeply was their gentleness. Little rabbits quietly accepting our hands. Tiny quail eking out an existence where there was barely one to be had. Chickens whose bodies told of deprivation, with some, heartbreakingly, having succumbed to it. And a sweet little whisker-twitching mother rat gathering whatever she could find to make a nest for her twelve impossibly pink, wriggling babies.

They had somehow been making the best of a world that had given them so very little.

And so, one by one, we counted them, cared for them and carried them out.

Fifty-nine lives through a doorway that would soon cease to exist and into a vehicle that said they had every reason to.

We don’t know what would have happened had that demolition worker simply done the job he was sent there to do.

Thankfully, we and those animals never will.

Because while a building was scheduled for demolition that day, one man understood that the lives inside it were not.

And sometimes the greatest lifeline of all is simply this:

One person deciding, “Not on my watch.”

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Rat Fanciers of Australia, Strong Hearts Farm Sanctuary, The Bluey and Alice Bunny Refuge and Lazzi’s Bird Refuge, who so readily stepped forward to offer these animals the specialist care and safe haven best suited to their needs.

And so on a day when kindness started with one person refusing to look away, this rescue story became one about the contagious nature of compassion.