JOYCE – Pebbles the wallaby’s days of being on the lam are over.
The 1½ year old pregnant red-necked wallaby – which had punched a hole through her pen and escaped on Tuesday – was spotted Saturday at about noon bedding down in the grass on her owners’ property.
Kiki Littlefish, Pebbles’ licensed owner, was delighted to see her again.
But Pebbles didn’t give up without a fight.
For about 2½ hours, the 19-year old owner chased her little friend, finally collaring her with an bribe of grass and clover.
And just at that time Wally, a three-year-old male wallaby, escaped from his pen.
He was quickly caught.
The pens have since been reinforced.
Pebbles “was perfectly fine when we got her, as far as we could tell,” Kiki Littlefish said.
“She looked worn out. Other than that she had no cuts or wounds or anything like that.”
The wallabies, natives of Australia, share quarters with a host of exotic animals.
Nancy Littlefish, Kiki’s mother, said she supports her daughter’s collection of exotic animals, but “I’m actually more interested in something that you could eat or that would work for you.
“I grew up with farm animals.”
She said her daughter’s animal collection makes their home like “a zoo.”
“We have three dogs, a cat, a ferret, seven fish, an African bush baby, a couple of flying squirrels, a colony of sugar gliders and two wallabies, now 2½ wallabies,” Nancy Littlefish said.
“We don’t have the snake anymore and the ferret bit the tarantula, so different ones have come and gone.”
But Pebbles is the first animal to run away, Kiki Littlefish said.
The marsupial’s baby is fine, Nancy Littlefish said.
They’d both “seen its pink nose poking out of the pouch.”
That doesn’t mean the wallaby isn’t pregnant anymore. Marsupials apparently give birth in phases.
Nancy Littlefish explained that wallabies are born “about the size of a termite” and immediately crawl into the pouch to grow more before becoming independent of the mother.
Wallabies are herbivores, eating grass, clover and dandelion leaves.
So Pebbles wasn’t hungry when she came home.
“I was more concerned about the cougar that comes by sometimes or the pack of coyotes,” Nancy Littlefish said.
“She’d definitely be a tasty morsel for the cougar.”
