By Luke Voogt
Local baby marsupials will snuggle into toasty woollen pouches this winter thanks to the sewing efforts of elderly residents like Di Baker.
The Torquay local was delighted to meet baby kangaroo Skip on Tuesday at a Uniting AgeWell respite centre in Belmont.
“He’s gorgeous. I can’t help but want to kiss him!” she said.
The self-professed animal-lover said both tales of cruelty and kindness to local wildlife inspired her to get sewing.
“You can’t help but love animals when you come from a farm area,” she said.
“I’ve got a mini foxy Jack Russell and I love him to the bones – the way he sits and looks at you and pushes you with his paws.
“Those other animals like wombats have a way of talking to us too – I’m sure they do.”
The shooting earlier this year of a kangaroo with a bow and arrow while it was nursing a joey disgusted Di.
“What makes people do these things I don’t know – animals have got just as much right to the world as we have.“
But Di, who has sewed since she was a kid, is helping orphaned joeys with her skills, along with other residents attending the respite centre.
“If helps them and they think they’re back with their mum that’s a good thing,” the 68-year-old said.
“Bushfires might come along and they might lose their mother – baby animals lose their mothers all the time.”
She saw the work Jirrahlinga Koala and Wildlife Sanctuary does for joeys like Skip when she visited 2012.
“I’ve been through there with my husband when he was alive.”
