Australia is home to a variety of exotic species that you can’t find in most places around the globe. Kangaroos are one of Australia’s famous residents and thousands of them are losing their habitat due to illegal hunters and even devastating wildfires. Luckily, some people welcome them temporarily into their homes before they are ready to get back out in the wild again.
This couple’s job is to rescue and take care of orphaned joeys in the wild.
Our Haven Wildlife Shelter is a non-profit rescue and animal sheltering organization founded in 2009 by husband and wife Therese and Tony Matthews. They both have a shared love of wildlife and it has been a decade since they have been taking care of various animals from fowls to land mammals.
They specialize in giving a second chance to pouch joeys that they sometimes find inside the pouches of their deceased parent.
This time, we get to have a look at their lives with a family of kangaroos in their home.
“They act like humans, they’re just the same,” Theresa Matthews told The Dodo.
The kangaroos act like spoiled brats at home, squabbling with their siblings over the smallest of things. Sometimes, you would find some kangaroos giving cuddles to one another, but after a few seconds, you would see them wrestling each other again.
What is more interesting about them is their different personalities.
Theresa and Tony know their kangaroos pretty well and they could tell each one apart through their looks and personalities. Some kangaroos love annoying the others, and some could be the greedy ones of the bunch.
During feeding time, there is one greedy kangaroo who loves to jump inside the sack that’s full of dried hay and eat it while chilling inside it. That kangaroo will even sleep inside it and wait until he feels hungry again.
Despite their differences, Theresa and Tony love them all equally and unconditionally.
Tony assists Theresa in nurturing the baby kangaroos to good health. It’s Tony’s job to fill their milk bottles while the hungry kangaroos are waiting behind his back. For them to drink their milk at the same time, they latched each bottle in a customized cylinder and let the kangaroos suckle on them.
Meanwhile, Theresa makes the kangaroos feel the love and attention that they deserve.
You can see Theresa carrying and cuddling some of the kangaroos around like some overgrown baby. Together, they can manage and maintain the shelter as a safe and healthy environment for the baby kangaroos until they are ready to go back home.
“It’s not just about feeding them, and it’s not just about cleaning up. It’s giving them love like their mother would,” Theresa said.
Every heartbreak of letting them go is also a satisfying and fulfilling job for them.
Tony and Theresa’s job is not to keep them permanently in their home but to nurse them until they are ready to go off on their own.
“When you’ve looked after them for nearly 18 months, it’s really hard to say goodbye,” Theresa shared.
Despite having tears when letting go of these animals, it is also a happy day for them as they were able to give these animals a second chance in life!
Check out the video of the sweet kangaroos jumping and playing below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
