Denny, who likes to pose if food is on the menu (hand-raised by Suzanne)
I've been staying on a wildlife sanctuary, "Waminda", a few kilometres north of Geraldton. I was met by Ian "on the left, by Red Rooster", last Friday and I followed him back here to the property.
There are lots of pet roos and emus, though emus (with a brain smaller than a budgies) do not make satisfying pets. I can't imagine training them to do anything bar handfeeding, which they don't mind doing. There's a mad one, Stella, who does all sorts of unpredictable things, rocking around, laying down suddenly, doing an Emu dance; quite a repertoire.
The kangaroos are mostly hand-reared. A cute little joey, Marly, lives in the house, in a pouch and only ppops up for her next feed of marsupial milk. She likes to lick fingers, probably for the salt. She cranes her neck around the room, seeing what is going on and probably wondering where her next bottle is.
She's adorable. Ian bounces the bag up and down to remind her that she's a kangaroo and they hop about. Suzanne, Ian's partner, hand reared Denny, who now lives outside in the paddock. She spends most of her day lazing around in front of the house (Denny, not Suzanne!) waiting for her 'mummy' to make an appearance. When Suzanne appears, like yesterday, Denny tries to hop and hang onto her jacket.
Roos take a lot of handrearing and I can see how you can become so attached to them.
Other animals at "Waminda" are One, she's a Rottweiler, a lovely dog. There's Kevin (or Kev for short), a young feral dove who likes company and after feeding, will snooze on the back of your hand, only waking now and then to do a few droppings either on your hand or clean trousers!
There are several parrots, budgies, hoppy the one legged chicken, Stevie Wonder, a blind chicken, a retired, blind dingo who only comes out of hiding (in her cage) to prowl around for her next meal, guinea pigs, and many field mice who prefer to live in houses~
My computer is with a technician, but until I can get a startup password from my son who set up the operating system, for me, and is currently uncontactable in the Snowy Mountains, I'm stuffed.
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