Untitled Document

MOLLY'S TALE

Molly arrived at Roo Gully on the 28th September 1998, with her twin sister Polly.
Their mother had been shot by a farmer's son.

Western Grey kangaroos rarely give birth to twins so imagine our surprise
when we opened the cloth bag and saw Molly and Polly.

We felt so sorry for them, and our hearts went out to the 2 young sisters who looked so frightened of their new world.

And this is where we make an honest announcement,
there was a slight communication problem at Roo Gully.
We had all ready offered a home to Sadie, Katie and Rosie.
The twins were two more kangaroos that were unlikely to go bush.
I thought Roy would not want two extra roos,
and he thought that I would think 2 more was two too many.

And so we actually found a home for the twins,
but thankfully after 24 hours their new family decided that caring
for 2 joeys was too much of a responsibility and asked if they could bring they back to us.

They were welcomed home with open arms
and we talked of how could we have ever considered letting them go

What fools we had been, and we both knew we had been so close
to losing the best opportunity to study these very rare joeys.

And so that day we both knew we would be sharing our home with kangaroos for many years to come.
It was the day our wildlife sanctuary was really born.

We never ever regretted offering the twins a home.
They were truly wonderful and so loving, especially towards each other.

They might have been twins but they were so very different.
Molly was confident, whereas Polly was timid,
and Molly acted like a mother to her little twin sister.

They even adopted what we called the twins 'position'.
Polly huddled under her older sister as if looking for her mother's pouch.
And Molly with her body over her younger sister as if protecting her.

They even learned to walk in their 'position'.

It was amazing to see that as the twins got older,
their love for each other grew, and they became inseparable.

But also as they got older their different characters became more pronounced.
Molly was a pretty joey, and grew into a beautiful young kangaroo.

She was also much more intelligent than Polly,
and so when the wild boomers came visiting Molly knew where she was safe from their amorous advances.

And that was in bed with us!

But although Molly had found a good hiding place
and could run like the wind, she could not outwit
or outrun Oliver forever.

I will never forget the night he caught her.
Western Grey mating is often a violent affair and the boomers are very insistent.
Poor Molly returned home at 2am battered and bloodied, and suffering from shock.
The kitchen looked like a battlefield as I sat holding our traumatised roo until morning.

On the 10th May 2000 Molly gave birth
to a daughter, who we named Karri.

We had expected Molly to be a very good mother,
because she was very efficient helping Polly raise her joey Willow,
even cleaning her niece inside her twin sister's pouch.

And she was very good with all the young orphaned joeys.

But when it came to her own daughter it was very different.
We often saw Molly asleep under a bush
and Karri at the other end of the property snuggled up with one or two of the other roos.
But maybe this was because Karri was very independent.

Or perhaps it was because Molly just liked her kids
a wee bit older, because as the months went by
the bond between mother and daughter did strengthen.

Today they are very close, and are often seen together
cuddling under a bush.

Molly is one of the original 7 kangaroos who featured in the early Bush Gang Tales,
and of course is very precious to us all.
Over the years Molly has given us much love.

And made us laugh many times,
especially when playing with her sister Polly.

But she has also given us some very worrying moments.

We were warned that, because twins are rare,
our girls could have congenital problems

And they did, with Molly's became apparent first.
She had problems swallowing, and feeding her became a nightmare.
Milk very often poured down her nose, instead of down her throat,
and one day she choked and inhaled enough milk to collapse one lung.
We rushed her to the veterinary hospital, nearly an hour away,
where she was put on oxygen and thankfully treated successfully.
After that episode we encouraged Molly to eat more solids and weaned her off the bottle early.

Molly then went on to lead a fairly uneventful life, only suffering
the usual scrapes and bruises most young kangaroos
obtain during their adventures in the bush.

Thankfully none were life threatening
and she was always considered a healthy roo.

Then one day in November 2002 we discovered Molly in the bush by the creek with a seriously swollen face.

We were very worried, because only 11 months before Rosie
had been found with a swollen face and she died.
Sadly, even though we sent Rosie's body to Perth for a post mortem
we never found out the exact cause of her death, so when we saw Molly we were frightened. The only difference between Molly and Rosie was that Molly was only swollen on one side of her face. Rosie's swelling
was symmetrical.

Taking no chances, and only being able to guess at the reason for the swelling,
we injected Molly with an antibiotic, in case it was an infection;
an anti histamine, because it could have been an insect bite or sting; and an anti inflammatory.

Although we will never know which medication worked, or whether in fact Molly would have recovered without treatment, we were delighted to see a more normal looking Molly the next morning.

And the case of Molly's swollen face is yet again
another kangaroo mystery.
If only they could talk!

Since then Molly has been a healthy kangaroo, although we do admit she is very fat!

She is a happy roo, and always welcomes us with her arms stretched high
because she loves having her armpits tickled.

Molly is now one of Roo Gully's old ladies,
and loves relaxing in the sun.

But her age also means she has a very important role within the mob.
After Rosie died she took over her job as the mob's nanny
and is responsible for the discipline of all the young joeys.
But, just as Rosie was, Molly is also very loving towards the youngsters
and it is heart warming to see her with them.

Over the years Molly has provided us with valuable information for our studies.
Observing her we have been able to understand a little about the relationship of twin kangaroos
and her role as a mother and the nanny has also greatly furthered our knowledge of kangaroo mobs.

Your 'adoption' will help us continue our studies and also help us to offer a home to Molly for the rest of her life.

On behalf of Molly and her mates we thank you for caring