SWLNwallaby – by Jack Fifield
A farmer rearing a newborn wallaby after his mum passed away keeps him in a pouch on her body and takes him everywhere she goes – including a baby shower.
Lauren Owen, 36, says she is now a ‘proud mum’-of-two – to five-month-old wallaby, Roo, alongside her 11-year-old human daughter, Phoebe.
Roo joined Lauren, her partner, Mark Navin, 44, and their little girl in the family home in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, at Monk Park Farm, on February 5 after his mum, Juliet, had to be put down after becoming infected with toxoplasmosis.
The couple manage and live on site at the petting farm – where they have alpacas, sheep, pigs, ponies, and more.
Lauren bottle feeds Roo every four to five hours and takes him everywhere she goes – including to a baby shower and her dad’s 60th birthday meal.
At night, the young wallaby stays in a heated lamb warming box next to the couple’s bedroom, with Lauren and Mark taking turns to feed him every few hours.
Lauren says Roo may even be starting to think that he’s a human.
Lauren, originally from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, said: “I don’t know if I’m more wallaby than him. I hope he does [think he’s a human], I feel like he does.
“When I do things with him, if I take him off my skin he goes back on my skin, however I’m also not really giving other people opportunities.
“It is just me and Mark, more me, but Mark will do a feed and help toilet and things, and sometimes do the really late night feeds, because I’m terrible without sleep.”
During the day, mum Lauren keeps him tied to her body so he stays warm.
She said: “I just started wearing tight vest tops underneath my clothes to keep him in, then I got a scarf and tied him in.
“He’s just there all day on my skin while I pretend to be his mum, keeping him well with body heat instead of dry heat that’s in the box.”
Lauren has even let well-behaved Roo – who does not cry – tag along to some of her social events, though she keeps him in his pouch.
She said: “He’s just with me all day, he’s been to a baby shower, he’s been to York.
“We went out for a meal the other day for my dad’s 60th.
“I don’t really get him out, I just look like I’m pregnant and I just carry him round on me, I just think the motion has got to help, and the sounds.
“Mum will have had sounds on her, like her heartbeat and the breathing motion.”
And now, Roo has even reached one of his first milestones, taking his first hops on Saturday, February 22.
Lauren said: “He was only out for three minutes and he was hopping over towards me like a wallaby.
“When we’ve had him before he just falls over, really wobbly and he just falls over.
“It’s like a milestone, I’m a proud mum.
“He’s been living around us for two-and-a-half weeks, but so much has happened.
“I know it sounds daft, but from him having wet milk poos to little perfect logs, you just feel like he’s just growing, everything’s going well and just touch wood, you hope it does continue.”
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