A golden retriever is being hailed a hero after saving the life of an abandoned koala.
Kerry McKinnon, of Strathdownie in Western Victoria Australia, awoke to a surprise from her beloved golden retriever Asha.
Australia is never dull, even for dog owners
“It was quite early in the morning, and my husband yelled out to me to come have a look at something,” said Kerry, 45. “I didn’t know what he was talking about at first, but then I saw this tiny baby koala snuggled on top of Asha.”
You see temperatures in the area at night can drop as far as 5C (41F) and not every animal has such a warm fur coat like Asha’s.
Understandably, Kerry admitted that this did catch her completely off-guard, and she wasn’t exactly supportive of her cute dog’s heroism. “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.”
It is a complete mystery how the adorable little koala ended up attached to the hero golden retriever. The only explanation that makes sense is that the adorable animal was separated from its mother as it was still young enough to be living with her. “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.”
“I think the baby koala fell out of his mum’s pouch and didn’t know what to do”
“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.” Kerry said it “wasn’t easy” separating the two, as the koala put up a “huge fuss” when she tried to remove it from Asha’s back.
“He would have died out there if left alone all night. The poor thing could have been taken by a fox or something, too”
“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 little koala is all well and after being checked out by a vet, a local koala carer took the baby under their care until it can 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.”
Image credits: Kerry McKinnon / Caters News