This is Wanda. Wanda is a wombat. Right now, she’s hanging out rather sleepily on the lap of one of the cool staff members at Billabong Sanctuary, where she lives.
If you gave Wanda a stroke along her back, towards the lower part of her back and over her bum, you’d feel a solid plate of bone. Turns out, this solid plate is a built-in shield. When Wanda is in her tunnel and a dingo pokes its head in trying to eat Wanda, she can flatten herself against the ground (bum facing the entrance), let the dingo get its head in, and then use that solid plate of bone to crush the dingo’s head against the roof of the tunnel. (Poor dingo. Circle of life and all that. For the record, I like both wombats & dingos. Not taking sides.)
Her bum is her defense weapon. And you might never know it.
I think we all have a defense or two that someone wouldn’t guess about us on first meeting. Whether it’s a way of thinking that gives you a different viewpoint or something physical that gives you strength & confidence, we all have things that help us to feel and be protected.
What’s yours?
