Surrogate mom to the rescue of wallaby
Published: September 13, 2006
Ever since she was found abandoned by her mother at the Valley Zoo, Mira has been melting hearts.
When Valley Zoo workers found the 300-gram baby wallaby, they tried desperately to reunite her with its mother.
But the mother didn’t bond with her offspring, so they turned to Delia Gruninger.
A zookeeper for the past 25 years, Gruninger raised another wallaby 10 years ago, in addition to a capuchin monkey, white-handed Gibbon ape, a beaver, an otter and several birds.
“I’m a sucker for babies,” said Gruninger.
Gruninger adopted the baby wallaby and took it home. By that time, the pink, hairless creature weighed just 270 grams, said Gruninger.
She put Mira - short for “miracle,” a name coined by Gruninger’s daughter - into a pouch and slept holding her on her chest.
She woke every hour to feed Mira milk and to make sure she stayed warm.
Eventually, Mira began putting on weight. Recently she tipped the scales at nearly two kilograms.
A decade ago Gruninger raised another wallaby when its mother broke its leg after being frightened by a dog.
But she’s more attached to Mira, which she’s taken grocery shopping, to the mall and even to doctors’ appointments.
“(People) look at me kind of strangely and they flip out when they see her,” said Gruninger.
“They can’t believe her. She’s so cute, she melts people’s hearts.”
Mira has even grown on Gruninger’s family and their friends. Her son’s friends came over one day to take a look at the marsupial and instantly fell in love.
“This one big kid said, ‘I’m melting,’ ” said Gruninger. “My family doesn’t want me to give her back.”
Nonetheless, Gruninger said she’s slowly beginning to introduce Mira to the other wallabies and knows she’ll have to give up the little one at some point.
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