Penelope decided to go out and examine the damage after hours of torrential rain caused severe flooding near her property in Australia. She told the Dodo, “It had been a devastating morning. I needed to get out of the house.”
She noticed something on the route ahead as she crossed a little bridge where the floodwaters were beginning to recede. “A small black lump washed up as I walked down the muddy edge of the flood waters,” she explained.
Initially, Penelope mistook it for the death of a newborn duck. She took a closer look after that. “I realized it was a young platypus — so small, so lifeless,” she said. This was the moment when she thought that she had to do something to save the little platypus.
Penelope began performing CPR on the small platypus with two fingers in a frantic attempt to resuscitate him after he had obviously perished. She was unsure whether it would work. But, miraculously, it did.
He came back to life after a few moments. “When [the platypus] spluttered and started breathing, I was overwhelmed with joy, unable to control my happy tears,” Penelope said. “I just sat in the mud beside the precious little guy and wept. I just talked to him — told him he was going to be OK and felt an overwhelming sense of love.”
Later Penelope stood there watching as the platypus returned to the water’s edge. It waded in, and swam away. The platypus had been granted a second chance thanks to Penelope’s efforts to save him, but Penelope is grateful as well.
She expressed her emotions to the Dodo. “It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life,” she said, hoping others might take inspiration to help animals in need. “Please encourage people to stop, to check, to be kind, to allow for miracles. Love, always.”
