Pru and Skye were two eastern grey kangaroos that were raised by a fellow carer. Pru was a little older, but they were raised together. However when the time came for their release, they stayed put. The gates leading to the bush were left open for them, and they went out, and then they came back again. Day after day this happened till it became quite clear they had no intention of staying away. So eventually, the gates were closed again, and they stayed …..
However, two adult female roos living in the houseyard was not without its pitfalls. Most of the time there was no problem at all, and they got on well with the other household animals. They lived outside, but on occasion were allowed into the house, just into the back room, where they were given treats, including cups of tea (kangaroos LOVE tea, and have been known to steal tea bags from unwary campers…..).
The place where they lived was reasonably close to town, but on a country road. This particular day, they had visitors. It’s a rule in the country that you leave a gate the way you found it…….so if it’s closed, after you’ve been through it, you shut it again. These visitors didn’t close any of the gates they came through, and of course, after they had left, Pru and Skye were nowhere to be found. And of course these gates led onto the road……not the bush. So of course a search was started. The carer rang me in quite a state. They had searched the property and environs, and no roos. I suggested to her she should stay home at this stage, because I felt they would eventually come back, given their history of being home bodies, and someone they knew should be there to shut the gates once they did, and also someone might ring with information. The next thing I knew someone rang me…..telling me there was a kangaroo hopping down the main street, was it one of mine? They told me it was seen going into the yard of the stock and station agents. This is where you go to buy stock food etc, so maybe it thought it would get a snack here. So I rang the carer, and met her there. The staff at the store were a bit alarmed at their strange customer, and weren’t quite sure what to do, but we co-opted a couple of them, and between them, the carer, and myself, we managed to get Pru (so it turned out) into the back of her station wagon, and she and one of the staff lay on top of her, while I drove her vehicle home. I didn’t worry about adjusting the seat, which made driving a bit tricky…..she’s 5′ nothing, and I’m 5’5″……..We got Pru home, without further incident, and let her loose in the house yard, and then she drove us back to the store. At this stage still no sign of Skye, until the carer got a phone call telling her that a roo had been sighted going down the road towards the bush……the opposite direction that Pru had taken. Skye stayed away several days, then came towards home. Just as she was about to turn into their driveway (roos have an amazing sense of direction) she was startled by a motor bike going down the road, and took off in a panic, this time towards town….she actually saw this from the house. By the time she had got the car out, she had lost sight of her, but drove in anyway….couldn’t see her, and came round to me to enlist my help. Again the grapevine was alive and well, I got a phone call from someone who saw her go into the school yard……it was the weekend, so no kids were there……and off we went. We got to the school, and there she was, trying to hide behind a tree. The carer got her mobile out and rang home for her hubby to come and help, so we just watched Skye, and she watched us. The carer tried to talk to her, and calm her down, but it wasn’t very successful, Skye was by this time pretty well freaked out. Then the hubby arrived, and Skye made a break for freedom…..straight past me. Purely from reflex I grabbed at her tail with both hands, and got it. I hung on for dear life, and Skye just bounced up and down, she wasn’t going anywhere. Both carer and hubby crash tackled her, and got her down and lay on her. I got the station wagon, and backed it near her, and we bundled her in. And off we went again, to reunite her with Pru. Afterwards we all had a cuppa, and then sorted out getting all the different cars back home……..
A couple of years later, the same carer and her hubby were enlarging their house, and had some noisy machinery coming in. They knew this would upset the roos, and didn’t want them taking off in panic. They were quite capable of jumping the fences if they wanted to. After discussing the problem with me, they decided to keep them inside for the day, and to give them some valium to keep them calm. They arranged to get some from the vet, both tablets, and injections. This is where I came in, for the injections. Pru co-operated quite well, and was soon snoozing in the back room. Skye was a different kettle of fish altogether. Hubby had to hold her while I injected. She wriggled so much I bent the needle…..but after a while it was obvious she needed more, so we made her a cup of tea, with some tablets crushed up in it. She drank it eagerly, and soon settled down. However, she never forgot what I did to her, and when I came into the yard, as I often did, she would take off, and would never let me touch her.
Another time, and more visitors, this time with small children. The gates were secure this time, but the kids got overexcited with being in close proximity with the roos, and one of them started throwing stones at them. This caused the adults to step in and chastise the child severely, but the damage was done, and both the roos leapt the fence as though it wasn’t there. It was a 5′ paling fence. Pru didn’t go far, and was making her way round to the gate after calming down, but Skye went off down the road to the bush. The carer realised there wasn’t much she could do, seeing she had gone bush, except wait. Time went by, and there were reports of a roo being seen from time to time, and Pru settled into life on her own.
Several years came and went, and Pru by this time was getting very old. It was obvious that her end was near, and eventually she passed away in her sleep. We all assumed that Skye had died in the bush as well, until one day I had a phone call from a neighbour. He had an old kangaroo in his yard, with an injured foot, could I come and have a look, because this kangaroo seemed sort of tame. Seeing it was near her previous home I told the carer, and she came with me. Yes, it was Skye, and she had actually broken her foot, and we think she was trying to get home to “mum”. Of course we were going to have to transport her, so the neighbour kindly offered the use of his utility truck. So between us all, we managed to crash tackle her, and get her into the truck. Then we had to climb up onto the tray to lay on top of her (he managed to find a small step ladder for us to use, and put it in the truck for getting us out again), and off we went down the bumpy road. Fortunately it wasn’t very far, because it wasn’t a terribly comfortable trip for any of us…….but we got her home in one piece, and then we examined the break. It seemed as though it had happened a few days ago, and the bone seemed to be setting by itself, though a bit crooked. She wouldn’t have made it in the wild, but she was home now, and would be looked after, and “mum” would see to it that she was comfortable. As you can imagine she was beside herself to know that Skye had tried to come home.
Time went on, and Skye kept on keeping on. Her foot had healed completely, and she was coping quite well in the houseyard. She was quite elderly by this stage, and starting to look it. We reckoned she would have been about 17 by this stage, quite old for a roo. She had outlived Pru by about 5 years. But she was looking really old, and no matter what the carer fed her, she looked poor. And then one day she called me round to see if there was anything else I thought she should do. I came round, and Skye actually seemed pleased to see me. I went over and examined her, and she kept moving round so that I was touching her head. Everytime I moved away, she followed me; she seemed to be asking me to touch her. So I got down to her level and gave her a big cuddle. She nuzzled her head right into me. It really amazed me, after her previous treatment of me. I told Skye’s mum I thought there was nothing she could do, I just thought nature would take its course. And it did. That night Skye died. I felt she had made her peace with me during that visit, and was telling me she had forgiven me. It was a humbling experience.
The carer’s existence is a little less complicated now, only having dogs and cats, but we often talk about the adventures we had with Pru and Skye…….
Mamaroo's Diary 