Ben

Ben was my very first male wallaroo.  His mother had been hit by a car, and he had survived uninjured and brought to me for care.  He greeted me in the normal wallaroo manner, with a hiss and a flash of his black eyes.  At that stage, I still had some of my kids at home, and the novelty of rearing roos hadn’t rubbed off on them, so of course they wanted to help me look after this little bundle of fur that looked so helpless.  And, to be honest, I wasn’t very experienced with caring for roos either…

 

Anyway, we all fell in love with him, and of course in those very early days, he was in his pouch, all of the time.  However, as is normal with wallaroos, they grow quickly, and he very soon started to get out, and wander round the house….in particular at night.  He was fairly quiet about it, and would just appear beside somebody’s bed, asking to be let in.  If he came to me, I would get out of bed, and take him back to his own pouch.  Not so the kids;  they would just lift the sheets and he would tumble in and snuggle down next to their legs, and they would all go back to sleep.  Then in the morning, no Ben in his pouch;  no Ben to be found anywhere.  The first time it happened, I panicked;  I had no inkling of what had happened.  I thought he must have got outside, sneaking out when someone had gone to the loo, and went out and scoured the yard.  No Ben.  I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t find him.  The yard was safe, or I hoped it was, but he was still small, and could get cold easily, and where was he?  I went back inside, baffled.  It was time to get kids up for school, so I went into the boys’ room, and noticed a lump wriggling in one of the beds.  I investigated, and here were a pair of bright eyes looking back at me.  He looked very comfortable indeed….

 

This of course kept happening from time to time, but at least I knew where to look.  He was growing fast, and before too long he was spending all day outside, and most of it out of his pouch.  Even though he had plenty of playmates, none of them were other wallaroos, and I was concerned that he was going to grow up thinking he was a person, or a dog.  Besides, he was starting to get really bossy.  When the kids were away, and it was just me there, he would demand my attention.  If I didn’t give it to him, he would bite me.  His favourite place was the inside of my upper arm, where the skin is nice and soft, and leaves a lovely impression of roo teeth…. So I started making enquiries to see if anyone else amongst the carers of the time had a wallaroo around the same age.  I found one not too distant, and we agreed between us that Ben should go to her, as she had the more appropriate set up.

 

He was maybe 4 kilos (around 9 pounds) by this stage, quite grown up, but still happy to be in a pouch.  I bundled him up for his half hour journey and off we went.  He was by this stage a very handsome charcoal grey, and his new friend, Ularoo, was a bit smaller, female, and a lovely dove grey.  We arrived at his new home, and after meeting his new “mother”, we took him out into the yard to meet Ularoo.  We put him down on the ground in his pouch, and just let them sort it out.  He looked all around, and got out of his pouch, just examining things carefully, just hopping around slowly and sniffing at everything.  Then they met.  Well!  They stretched their heads out towards each other, both of them shaking like mad…..touched noses……and both of them jumped backwards several feet!  Then both of them bolted towards their respective mothers.  Of course we mothers were killing ourselves laughing, but both wallaroos soon recovered, and Ben continued on his exploration again.  This time when they met, the reaction wasn’t quite so extreme, although it was quite obvious that Ula thought he was some sort of an upstart intruder, and what right did he have to be here?  Ben was less than impressed with her too, and we could tell he thought the tone of the neighbourhood would climb if she left.  But we left them to it, we both realised this was fairly typical wallaroo behaviour, and went inside for a cuppa.  When we came back out later, things had settled down enough for me to leave him, but of course I had visiting rights, and constant phone calls were made both ways to inform me of his progress.

 

Ben and Ula soon became very attached.  This bond was to become lifelong.  Unlike grey kangaroos, who live in mobs, wallaroos live in small family units, or alone, so they already had their family unit.  But a few months later, I found that they would have to be moved again, as the new carer was moving…right out of the district.  They were still small enough to go in their pouches (although the pouches were somewhat larger by this), and rather than have them move out of the district, we moved them to another carer who lived about half an hour from me, in another direction.  This would be their final move we hoped.  We dosed them up with valium for this move, with them being a bit bigger, and the move went off with no dramas.  They had each other, and that was a big help.  Again I had visiting rights, and I was also in phone contact, so I was kept up to date with their development.  I was told of their eventual release, and I was told of their return a few weeks later.  They went again a few weeks after that, and stayed away a bit longer before their return, but after a while they decided they didn’t want to be wild, permanently.  The gate was always left open, and they could come and go as they liked, the choice was theirs.  And mostly they stayed.  In due course, Ula and Ben became parents.  And in due course, the baby left home, and they were parents again!  All their babies became wild, and left, but Ben and Ula stayed.

 

I haven’t seen them for a while, a couple of years now I suppose.  They were both getting on in years when I saw them last.  Ula had stopped having babies, so I suppose she had gone through the roo equivalent of menopause.  As a younger roo, Ben, even though he regarded this place as home, used to go for a wander occasionally, and he had been in some terrible fights with other males.  His ears were tattered, he had lost one eye, and the other eye didn’t seem to be working all that well, but his sense of smell still worked.  He knew where the food was, and he knew Ula.  And he was still very powerful looking.  Even though his hide was covered with scars, and he was obviously old, I still wouldn’t like to meet him in an alley on a dark night.  I think he would have even given the Terminator pause for reflection.

 

His carers always made sure there was extra food around for him, and he didn’t wander far now.  The gate was still open, but they knew which side their bread was buttered on, and I think they just wanted to live out the winter of their lives in peace and quiet.

 

This release had turned out a bit differently to most.  Most roos go bush, and may return on occasion.  This pair was given the same choice, and for their own reasons returned.  But still, the choice was theirs……