Chandra Prakash Choudhary
Australia just never fails to surprise us.
We have the whole world on one side, and then we have Australia with its mysterious animals and ridiculous stories of the creatures intertwining. You would never see anything like that happen anywhere else in the world. Even regular animals like dogs have very interesting adventures over in Australia. Recently, a dog named Asha befriended a koala bear. Yes! A baby koala bear, what an odd pair! But anything is possible in Strathdownie in Western Victoria.
Asha’s owner, Kerry McKinnon, found a surprise one morning at her house. As we know, temperatures in Australia drop down to 5C (41F) sometimes, and animals seek warmth, which isn’t a problem for Asha because of her thick coat. However, not every animal can have that warmth, especially baby koala bears. That’s where Asha comes to the rescue.
This is Kerry and Asha.
The 45-year-old Kerry told News.com.au. about the whole incident. “It was quite early in the morning, and my husband yelled out to me to come have a look at something,” She didn’t see it at first but then, “I didn’t know what he was talking about at first, but then I saw this tiny baby koala snuggled on top of Asha.”
Kerry wasn’t expecting to see a koala at all and didn’t know exactly how to respond immediately, so she burst out laughing. “I just burst out laughing. Poor Asha didn’t know what to think; she just kept looking at me with such a confused look,” McKinnon added. “She looked a bit guilty when I came out to see what was going on. Her expression was hilarious.”
“She kept looking back at the koala bear, but she wasn’t trying to get him off her or anything. She was happy to let him snuggle into her.”
We don’t know exactly how the koala ended up with Asha but the most reasonable explanation is that the baby koala bear fell out of her mother’s pouch and lost her way. She probably ended up at their porch, where she found Asha. The koala is still too young to be living without her mother. “I think the koala bear baby fell out of his mum’s pouch and didn’t know what to do. He would have just wandered over to our back porch and seen the dogs in their beds, then decided to snuggle in Asha’s fur because it’s nice and warm.”
“Asha definitely saved the koala’s life by keeping him warm. He would have died out there if left alone all night. The poor thing could have been taken by a fox or something too.”
It was very difficult separating the both of them as Kerry described that the koala bear created a “huge fuss” when they tried to get her off of Asha’s back.
Dogs have a guarding nature. They like to help around other animals and Asha holding the baby koala on her back is the most wholesome example of it. The Koala, however, was a bit feisty.
“I think dogs have that protective instinct. The koala didn’t want to leave Asha’s back. When we took the koala off to wrap it in a blanket, it hissed at me and carried on.”
The baby koala bear was then taken to the vet for a check-up and later given to a local koala carer who would take care of the baby until it is old enough to be released back into the wild.
“I think it would have been happy to have just slept there all day. It was really an amazing animal friendship to see and so uniquely Australian.”
This is what other people had to say about Asha and the baby koala bear’s relationship:
How wholesome was this? Have you ever seen an odd pair of animals together? Share your experiences with us in the comments below!