Rufous was my first redneck wallaby. He weighed around 2 pounds and was standing up in his pouch, looking over the side, when I first saw him The kids were entranced…after several grey kangaroos, they found him very different. To start with he was colourful, and he was bossy. And even though tiny, he would get out of his pouch, and dart round the house, skidding round the corners. The kids soon stopped calling him Rufous, and started calling him “the Cool Dude”….. He was very affectionate with the kids, and loved to spend time with them, and curl up with them in their laps. They would organise their clothes so he could dive into them, and he would think he had managed to find a new pouch.
After he got a bit bigger, he started going outside with the resident population of two young grey kangaroos that we had at the time. They were quite a bit bigger than him, and were quite put out with this upstart. Whenever they were trying to sample the easy life and have a lie down in the sun, he was rushing round like the world was ending. And things got even worse as he grew. He got to the stage where he thought he was sexually mature….only thought….He decided that the grey kangaroos were very beautiful. Perhaps he was short sighted as well as frustrated, because they were both males, and he tried very hard to mate with them……..but he was much too short……and the best he could do was to grab hold of one of their legs, and hold on tight, and away he would go…… The kangaroos would look puzzled, and look at me, as if to say….Mum, what is it? Get it off!!
Around about this time, I got a phone call saying there was a female redneck looking for a home, preferably with another redneck. So Ruby arrived. Well…..Rufous (the Cool Dude) was smitten. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He adored her. He groomed her. He looked after her……..and he forgot the grey kangaroos even existed. He still tore round as though he was on steroids, but as long as she was nearby, you could do anything with him. He made no sexual advances to her at all……he thought she was much too pure for that sort of behaviour. However, she developed into a real little devil. No way in the world was I allowed to come near her unless I had a bottle. And even then, I couldn’t actually touch her…..just give her the bottle, and as soon as it was gone, so was she. They were complete opposites, and the kids nicknamed her “the Wild Woman”.
They had attained the size and age necessary to be moved into pre-release, but I could see with her behaviour we were going to have problems. I knew he would be right…..he would go with her, no questions asked, but we were going to have fun catching her. I attempted it one day, and I managed to catch her by the tail. With a grey kangaroo, you catch it by the tail, and it keeps jumping, but in the one spot. With the Wild Woman, you caught her by the tail, and she leapt straight over my shoulder, sideways, in every direction, in her attempt to get free…..so I thought, this is going to be fun.
I rang the vet and explained the situation. She wanted to give me injectable valium, but I said, to give her that first I have to catch her…….and that just isn’t going to happen. So she gave me the necessary number of tablets, and then gave me another dose, in case the first lot didn’t work…….a stronger dose…….and if I didn’t need them, I could take them back to her. The appointed day came, and I made the valium milkshakes. Both of them took them happily, and I waited to see what happened….nothing much at all. She still took off when I went near her, and of course she wasn’t going to come back for another bottle just yet. I would have to try again tomorrow. Which I did. This dose was 2 and 1/2 times stronger than the previous dose. Again, they had their milkshakes, and this time after a while, she looked as though she was swaying in the breeze….Success! I walked over to her, and she attempted groggily to hop away, but this time when I grabbed her tail, she just bounced up and down, until I popped her into her pouch. I secured the bag just to be safe, and walked over to him, and he got into his pouch, no questions asked. Just so long as she was coming too…..
I bundled them into the car, for the 15 minute run to their new abode. Around 10 minutes into the trip, she started to come around….I could hear her hissing like a steam train. She was still hissing when we arrived, and I took them both out of the car. I lay the bags on the ground and while he waited patiently to have the bag undone, she was wriggling all over the place. I undid him first, and he popped his head out sleepily. Then I undid hers, and she was out like a shot out of a gun, and rushed away to explore. When he saw her go, he got up and followed. It was a bit of an effort, but he wasn’t letting her out of his sight. Even though she was very inquisitive about her new surrounds, she wasn’t panicking. She just wanted to check everything out, which she did, accompanied by Rufous. I watched them going hither and yon for around 15 minutes, and then they came back to me, seemingly satisfied. I poured a small amount of pellets onto the ground, and they both started nibbling. Excellent I thought, they’re settling down. After they had polished those off, they started eating the grass. So their new carer and I retired inside the house and had a well earned cuppa. I knew they would be okay now.
A month of so later, the carer started leaving the gate open……and eventually they went bush. I think Rufous would have his work cut out keeping that Wild Woman in order……
Mamaroo's Diary 