Tis the season to be jolly
Koalalalala Lalalala
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That’s how a Facebook post from Australian koala rescue “Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue- 1300KOALAZ” began on December 2nd of this year when they posted about receiving a strange phone call.
At first, they thought it was a prank call.
That’s Australia for ya
When Amanda McCormick – who lives in Coromandel Valley near Adelaide, in southern Australia – found her dog sniffing at the Christmas tree when she got home one day in early December, she knew something was up.
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And, hey, she lives in Australia. So as far as we know, it could have been ANYTHING! Needless to say, we’d be freaked out immediately at the possibilities and consider just moving out of the house with whatever we could grab.
Then again, it is a pretty magical looking tree.
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But McCormick didn’t get the shock of some poisonous snake or arachnid.
Instead, she found a koala bear in her tree!
“…a koala desperate to get in the Christmas spirit had wandered into Amanda McCormick’s house and decided it wanted to be the fairy on the Christmas tree,” 1300KOALAZ posted.
TikTok stardom
McCormick’s daughter Taylah was home at the time too – and she made a TikTok video of the moment before the rescuers came.
In fact, 16-year-old Tylah had been the last to leave the house that day, in charge of making sure the house was all locked up, according to The Guardian. But it sounds like someone didn’t lock the house up tight enough.
“I think the dog went straight to the Christmas tree and was sniffing around and Mum thought that was a bit weird,” Taylah told the paper. “There was baubles all over the floor … and she looked up and there was a koala in the tree.”
Silly koala, it wasn’t even a real tree!
The juvenile female was probably pretty disappointed AND disoriented.
“It was pretty tangled up in the lights. It was a fake tree and very old but she still tried eating the leaves off it … I saw her munch down on some but she stopped when she realised it was plastic.”
It seemed like a joke
Taylah’s surprise turned into her mother’s surprise
Amanda McCormick, Taylah’s mom, couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I thought ‘Is this a joke?’ I thought one of my kids may have put like a soft toy in there, but no, it was a live one.”
That’s when mom immediately called 1300KOALAZ. Dee Hearne-Hellon, the co-founder of the rescue, said initially they thought it was a “prank call.” But the family had photos and videos.
But then it became clear that they had a situation on their hands. And, of course, you should never approach a wild animal. So with a dog around and unable to touch the creature, they needed help.
“(The) best thing to do is leave them alone as they can get aggressive and call 1300koalaz to remove them,” she said. “As cute as they look they have very long claws and very sharp teeth,” Hearne-Hellon told CNN.
But in the meantime, they named it Daphne.
Daphne’s daring Christmas adventure
Daphne sat by, presumably regretting her life choices and looking adorable and rescuers came to the scene. They safely removed the living ornament and briefly checked her out before letting her go in front of the home.
Koalas are fairly common, after all. And they had to give Daphne the chance to get back to where she belonged.
It’s safe to say that she learned her lesson as well and will not be decorating any more trees this year.
The family, of course, took the opportunity to post about the adorable ordeal on social media. But even friends didn’t believe them at first.
“They were in shock at first, they didn’t think it was real … I had to send so many different videos because it just wasn’t moving. I had to get it blinking a couple of times to prove it,” McCormick told the Guardian.
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Now, of course, the whole story has gone viral.
“It was a very memorable experience,” Amanda McCormick said. “After a bad year, it was nice to have that.”
You can scroll down below to see Taylah’s TikTok video.
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@mcqueen1004gotta love coming home and finding a koala in your christmas tree.. wtf #australia #koala♬ stayin alive x poouussyy talk – DJ Lilli
