Sunday, November 29, 2015

Kangaroo escapes, goes on a walkabout in North Ridgeville

OHIO -- Police got an unusual call Friday morning when someone spotted a kangaroo hopping his way down Lorain Road.

After determining that the caller had not been sampling the holiday punch, police found Foster the kangaroo taking a bit of a walkabout.








The police officer knew the 'roo and knew he belonged to Candice and Joe Hanna, who lived nearby.

"We got a call and were asked if our kangaroo was missing around 6 a.m.," said Candice. "Sure enough he was not in his heated barn, though we can't figure out how he got away. He could not have gotten over the eight-foot-high fence."

They retrieved Foster, a three-year-old kangaroo, who was just quietly standing with police waiting to be picked up.

"He's very scared, he's still upset," said Candice Friday afternoon. "When kangaroos get scared they sweat a lot from their arms. They sweat so much that they actually get dehydrated, Foster's still upset about his little adventure."

Candice and her husband run Little Big Farm, a 10-acre retreat and home for animals they have rescued and nursed back to health.

She said Foster came to them when he was a baby.

"He was young, too young to have been separated from his mother," she said. "We bottle-fed him, I carried him around in a pouch. He was potty-trained and lived inside the house for more than a year. He's a sweet guy, very lovable. We built a habitat for him in the barn, with heat so he feels at home."

The couple has a menagerie of animals at the farm, each with a hard-luck story. They have a negai antelope; a Brazilian Indu cow; a humped, south Asian bull called a zebu; many different kinds of goats and a variety of horses from giant Clydesdales to three-foot-tall mini-horses.

"Everyone gets along with everyone else," she said. "If not, we send them to another place to live. Every animal here is friendly and content."

She said she was pleased that the North Ridgeville police officer knew them and knew where the kangaroo lived.

"The officers come over here with their families to see the animals," she said. "We're glad he knew to call us as soon as he recognized Foster."

(Cleveland.com - Nov 27, 2015)

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