Updates On 7th May 2015
PetFinder.my 
May 7, 2015 
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Kangaroo Thinks He’s A Dog
When rural farmer Ashley Stewart and his wife Felicity found a baby male kangaroo on the side of the road in 2013, they had no idea that the little joey would quickly become part of their family.
Two years on, the curious and friendly joey they have dubbed ‘Dusty’ is now so comfortable living with the couple and their dogs Lilly and Rosie on their farm, near Esperance in Western Australia, that the Stewart’s are convinced he actually thinks he is a dog too.
Dusty rides around the property in the back of Mr Stewart’s truck along with the dogs, sleeps with them on a dog bed, eats with them, asks for scratches, and even tries to sneak dog treats when he can. His unique behaviour began when Mr Stewart decided to drive down to a dam on the couple’s property in Wittenoom Hills, 60 kilometres from Esperance, and loaded Lilly, a golden retriever, and Rosie, a border collie, into the truck bed.
‘I loaded the dogs in and he was hanging around and looking up at the truck and so I just picked him up and put him in the back with them,’ Mr Stewart told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I didn’t think too much of it, we drove down and came back together,’ he said. ‘He’s been fine sitting on the back, as I don’t drive too fast because I’d be worried about him jumping off. He doesn’t jump in, I lift him in and out.’
While the adventure down to the dam has only happened a few times, Dusty, who the couple often call ‘Skip’, has also picked up some very canine-like habits.
‘He’s either eating or sleeping. He’s a very placid creature, and every time you walk out the door if he’s not laying in his bed he comes up and wants a pat and a scratch,’ Mr Stewart said.
‘He even puts his arms up and wraps them around you like he’s giving you a cuddle,’ he said.
And just like most dogs, while Dusty gets along well with Lilly and Rosie, he doesn’t care much for the couple’s cat.
‘He just likes to hang out with the dogs, probably because he thinks he’s a dog. He eats and sleeps with them, and will wander down to the shed with them and lay around if I’m working there,’ Mr Stewart said.
Dusty also has a collar, like many dogs, as a protective measure to ensure he can be found at nighttime.
‘When he was little we used to let him out during the day and he’d go off grazing and wouldn’t come back at night, so we’d have to go looking for him,’ Mr Stewart said. ‘We just couldn’t find him as kangaroos don’t make any noise and are very still,’ he said.
‘Once we found him he would always come back with us, so we decided to wrap some reflective tape around a collar so when we shone a torch at night we could see him’.
While Mr Stewart said that there are ‘plenty of people around who look after orphaned joeys’, their situation is a bit unusual. ‘In a rural area like this there are always kangaroos around who unfortunately get hit on the road and for various reasons orphaned joeys are found, and so we weren’t sure when we took him home what would happen,’ he said.
But by the time the couple had started to feed him, and weened him off milk, he was part of the clan. Now, instead of milk, Dusty eats a mixture of grains, and guinea pig/rabbit food, his favourite treats are an apple or bread. ‘Although when we feed the dogs he often wants what they’re having,’ said Mr Stewart.
Unsurprisingly for a joey who has convinced himself he’s one of the pups, he often tries to get some of the dog biscuits too.
Well we don’t exactly have kangaroos for adoption at http://PetFinder.my, but we do have happily jumping dogs that think they are kangaroos.
Source: http://dailym.ai/1FiZl2A
Source: https://www.facebook.com/PetFinder.my/photos/a.2849535748836..
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