Kangaroos, Wallabies, Goannas, Possums and other animals - Sharing my back yard and Home with these 'friends'.

I live in a little coastal village surrounded by native forest and a Wild Life reserve, very few of us have fences and most of the properties are one acre or larger. No fences? well they are fairly meaningless to a Kangaroo, even a baby can jump a three foot fence and an adult can sail over a six foot fence from a standing start!

The Kangaroos that live around us are the Eastern Gray Kangaroo and they are abundant in our area of the world. They wander around the village munching the grass (and any other unprotected plants). I only have to mow my lawn a couple of times a year and that is mainly to chop down the few plants that Kangaroos and other friends don't eat.

Last year was a tough year for the wildlife around here, we had suffered drought for the previous two years. Many of the baby Kangaroos didn't make it through the winter. This year happily the drought has broken and there is plenty of feed for the animals. I get a good close up view of the Kangaroos through my particular 'friends' Molly' and 'Poppy'.

Molly is a young female Kangaroo about 2 years old, I first noticed her when she came right up to the window downstairs where I work. She stood about two feet from me just watching me type away on the computer. I went outside and started talking to her. I turned out that 'Molly' was hand reared by Caroline our local volunteer animal 'rescuer'. Molly's mother was killed by a car, and the baby rescued from the pouch. She was hand reared and then let free to mingle with the local wildlife.

We started hand feeding Molly last year and we noticed she was pregnant. Summer came and Molly's baby (we called 'Poppy') hopped around, always returning to Mum. Molly kept letting her back into the pouch even after she grew quite large, which looked hilarious.
Molly still feeds Poppy today and she must be close to a year old. It took until a month ago for Poppy to pick up the courage to approach us for a snack, she now usually hops up first.

At night time we hear the familiar 'thump' on our back veranda as 'Rupert' the needy Possum comes to the door for a feed. We have been hand feeding him for two years, he started by stealing food from the bird table and just got braver.

During the day we also hand feed King parrots, Crimson Rosella's, Rainbow Lorikeets, Magpies and Kookaburras. There is one animal however that we leave well alone and that's the Goanna. They lumber through our property during late spring and all summer long. They grow quite large and like their relative the Komodo Dragon their bite can be quite toxic due to the bacteria living in their mouth. They also have a poison which causes the blood to stop clotting....nice!

Oh yes we also have snakes the most common being the red bellied black snake so you have to make sure you wear the right gear if you intend walking through the bush.

Then we have our local beach which rarely sees more that 10 people at once over several miles (and that's during tourist season). Swimming in the sea often means sharing space with dolphins which is a wonderful experience and you never get sick of it.

I know we are privileged to live where we do and getting up close to animals has such a calming effect, especially Kangaroos they are so gentle, which is a good thing when you see how large their claws are and that one huge 'ripping' toe on each foot. We do live in a remote area, but we have a close community and as far as I am concerned it is us who are living near to everything and those suburban dwellers who are 'isolated' and a long way away from everything that matters.

We are human beings, we are animals and I am especially lucky because many of my closest friends are animals too.

Cheers and go pat and animal right now......that's an order.