Andrew Mathieson
LITTLE River’s Rosalind McFadyen snaps her fingers and Milo – one of her two Labradors – edges towards a teenager’s wheelchair, sits down in front and looks up longingly.
“You be good,” she commands.
Angus, her other faithful companion, quickly follows and obeys Ros on just a fleeting glance.
She has complete control over the loving pets.
Fighting a terminal illness is unfortunately out of her hands.
But the 17-year-old is winning her battle, somewhat.
Born with the Ivemark syndrome, a congenital disorder in which organs are misoriented, doctors gave baby Ros little chance to survive past her first few days.
Since that grim diagnosis, she has become the only Australian with the condition to live past two years.
Her arms, now covered with sores from her blood’s low oxygen saturation levels, tell of her lifetime of battle.
That’s only half the story.
Ros shies away when talking about having no spleen, half a heart, a deformed liver, two right-sided lungs and a stomach on the wrong side of her body.
Mum Merryn steps in, proudly boasting of Ros’s fighting spirit.
“It’s hard to get my head around that she is actually still here,” Merryn says.
“It’s miracle she’s still alive – the hospital can’t believe it.”
The disorder is too complex for heart or lung transplants and a few close calls have put her life in danger.
These days she is often wheelchair-bound, struggling to walk from one end of the house to the other without an oxygen tank.
Animals are her escape.
During one trip to the hospital, TV vet Katrina Warren presented a sick Ros with an honorary diploma in veterinary science on hearing of her knowledge and dedication to the animal cause.
“I did teach her something about Labradors,” Ros says with pride.
“Katrina thought Labradors’ original purpose was to bring ducks in but, no, actually they bought in the fisherman’s nets and caught the fish that jumped out.”
Ros spends most of her days in front of a series of David Attenborough DVDs or scanning the internet for every possible animal fact and figure.
Her knowledge extends to an advice column for locals in Little River News Review.
Ros’s drawings of her dogs formed the basis of a 2008 calendar she designed to raise more than $14,000 for animal charities.
“I used to have an art therapist who came out, so I took a dog picture first one night and I came up with the idea,” Ros explains.
Jirrahlinga Wildlife Sanctuary was so impressed that it named the $10,000 donated new animal hospital Rosalind’s Animal Recovery Centre.
Shire of Wyndham, which neighbours City of Greater Geelong, had no hesitation in announcing Ros its 2009 youth of the year.
While always fighting to survive against the odds, Ros holds more concern about saving the lives of animals.
She was the brainchild of a big pond in the family backyard to attract tadpoles to the environment.
“We’re getting spotted marsh frogs and eastern banjo frogs now, which are pretty cute,” Ros smiles.
The qualified wildlife carer then opened the spacious Little River backyard to two possums suffering smoke inhalation from the Black Saturday bushfires.
The list of adopted animals is so long now that there are no favourites.
“I like everything, every animal,” Ros says.
“You also have a huge bird aviary,” Merryn reminds her.
“Oh, yes, I love birds, too,” Ros replies.
She likes to sit out the back watching in amazement as more than 50 birds of different species fly around inside the aviary.
Of course, Ros laughs about having to clean out the poo from their cages.
“That’s mum’s job,” she grins.