So, to start - if you're a regular reader of this newsletter, you know we have a little urban farm complete with goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and guinea fowl. We also have some pets - a barn cat, a labrador, and a pet wallaby. You read that right - I have a pet wallaby.
A wallaby is a small-ish marsupial, kind of like a tiny kangaroo. I'm sure if you didn't already know that I had a small pet kangaroo-like animal in my house, you probably have a million questions. You have probably already asked me a million questions if you DID know it - so I will do a quick and truncated rundown.
Welby, our pet wallaby, is somewhere between six and seven years old. We're not sure exactly how old he is as you don't know a birthday with a marsupial the same way you do with a dog; you only know when they poke their heads out of their Mom's pouch. Personality-wise he's mostly like a very big rabbit. He's nervous around new people, but he'll come when Mark (my husband) or I call him, especially if we have food.
He tolerates the kids, but especially the younger one loves him a lot more than vice versa. Welby does enjoy playing with the kid’s toys, though.
Unlike almost all the other animals we have, Welby serves exactly zero purpose other than to be cute. Luckily, he's very good at the cuteness, and he's an expert on looking at you through those eyelashes that last for days while begging for snacks.
Here's the thing, though, not all the lights are on upstairs with him - if you know what I mean. He's so cute, and so so so so so so dumb. He's also dumb and a prey animal, so besides lounging on his bed, snuggling with the labrador, and watching tv with us, he doesn't have a lot going on - or at least he didn't - until Friday night.
Friday was Mark's birthday. It's hard with little kids to do anything big, but I managed to get our nanny to babysit so we could go out to dinner for a few hours. We were out with Mark's brother and his girlfriend, enjoying an evening away, and were starting to wrap it up when Mark answered his phone. I looked down at my phone and saw several missed calls from our nanny. My heart fluttered into my throat. I looked at Mark and saw him say, "Ok, well S&%*!!"
"What's happening?" I asked. "Welby is out," he said.
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