Baby koalas, otherwise known as joeys, are incredibly reliant on their mothers from birth. They are actually born blind and with undeveloped ears, so they depend on their mama to be both sets of eyes and ears until they can see and hear for themselves.
They spend six months in their mom’s pouch whilst they develop, but even when they are ready to come out, these cuddly little guys will stay close by their mama and ride on her back or belly.
The bond between a koala and her joey really is unbreakable! But what happens when a joey loses her mama?
Well, that’s exactly what happened to this little guy from Adelaide, Australia.
Dog owner Henry let his pooch Tony outside to do his business when he came across the strangest surprise. A baby koala was wandering around lost and confused, searching for his mama.
However, when the joey spotted Tony, he did the sweetest thing!
He climbed up onto Tony’s back, and the little pooch looks hilariously confused. He must have thought he’d found his mama!
Henry explained:
“One early morning my doggy Tony barked loudly and wanted to go out. I thought he was busting so I let him out and followed him behind. While Tony reached the lawn, a baby koala suddenly turned up and hopped on Tony’s back.”
Naturally, Henry took his phone out and decided to film the whole thing- and we’re so glad he did! He said:
“I thought it was so amazing and unusual for a baby koala to ride on a dog’s back, so I took out my mobile phone and started shooting.”
Henry posted the video onto YouTube, and within no time it had gone viral with over 97,000 views and 3,000 likes. Local news companies picked up the story and soon Tony and his little joey buddy were internet celebrities!
In the hilarious video, we can see Tony walking around looking utterly perplexed as the joey clings onto his side, before pushing himself up and riding on Tony’s back.
The poor pooch keeps on looking questioningly at his owner as if to say “what on earth is going on?”
Tony just can’t understand why he’s now giving piggybacks to the wild animals, and he looks unsure about what to do about it.
At one point, he nudges the joey with his nose and tried to shake him off, but the fluffy little guy just doesn’t get the hint! Luckily, Tony is very calm natured and allows this piggyback to continue. Henry said:
“It was a very cute baby koala. As I know Tony was a very friendly and tolerable creature and he wouldn’t do any harm to the baby koala, I didn’t do anything to stop them form interacting with each other.”
Eventually, the joey hops off on his own accord and “was performing a spectacular horizontal bar stunt” whilst allowing Henry for a close-up view of all that adorable-ness. Just look at how fluffy he is!
But did he ever find his mama?
We’re happy to tell you that he did indeed. Henry said that once he’d had his fun on the ground, the joey “climbed onto the gum tree and going back to its mother’s pouch.”
We do love a happy ending. Watch the adorable video in full below!
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