September 2007

Kangaroo Tale

My brother had come from Sydney to Western Australia on a business trip. He stayed with me and on the last weekend he wanted to travel south to have a look around. For some reason I felt compelled to pack my Leatherman Charge so I went with it. On the way down south we were getting close to empty and had to refuel. Pete noticed a sign to a small town off to the right so I took the exit off the highway.



As I started up this road I noticed a kangaroo sunning itself in a paddock on my right. We got our petrol and as we headed back I pointed out the kangaroo, now on our left, to Pete. We pulled over to have a look; the animal was about 70 meters in on the paddock and didn’t move which was unusual. We waived & shouted at it but it still did not move. The fence was too high to get over, so I went to the corner of the paddock where the barbed wire fence was older but appeared harder to get through. I shot back to the car and grabbed my trusty Leatherman and cut my way through.



I approached the roo slowly and was able to get up close; the roo was a small male and had been there for some time. We went back to the place where we got fuel and asked for help. Carlene, the wife of the petrol station owner, said she would come down and have a look and she knew a lady who would nurse it back to health if the injury wasn't too bad. With Carlene's help we slowly rolled the animal onto its other side to discover it had badly bruised ribs, possibly from being hit by a car. It’s funny how things just happen . . . a need on that day to pack my Leatherman, running low on gas, seeing what I thought was a roo sunning itself and meeting strangers who are like minded in caring for injured animals.



Next week I will be riding my bike back to Preston Beach to check out how the roo is doing and say hi to Carlene and thank her for her help. Without having my Leatherman with me it would have been possibly too difficult to get through the barbed wire. Thanks Leatherman for such a fine and faultless product.



Mike H.

Rockingham, Western Australia