Shiron is taken to his australian mother
Wundowie — 2000-04-24
The time has come, today Tanja and I are going to take Shiron to Mary Jane’s. The sun is shining, it’s a warm and pleasant day. “Let’s take some last pictures of Shiron,” says Tanja. With mixed feelings we enter the kangaroo enclosure where Shiron has been living for some weeks now. Tanja has slowly got him accustomed to life out in the open. In the beginning she allowed him only a few hours at a time with the other kangaroos in the spacious enclosure. Then she extended the intervals. At first she spent the nights with him outdoors and got up every few hours to let him hop into his warm bag. It was a hard time for Tanja when on many a day Shiron stood out in the pelting rain, wet and freezing, and called for her. But it was our goal to make a strong and independent kangaroo boy out of him, and I believe that Tanja has mastered her job as a kangaroo mama in an exemplary manner.
I shoot photographs and films with Tanja and Shiron in various positions, then we make him jump into his bag and carry him to the car. On the road, our spirits are low. Shiron is lying on Tanja’s lap nosily looking out of the car window. He has no suspicion yet of our imminent farewell.
When we arrive at Mary Jane’s she welcomes us with an embrace. We talk a bit, and suddenly Tanja starts to weep. It is so hard for her to part with her kangaroo baby. I make an attempt to comfort her, but the right words won’t come to me. With a heavy heart we carry Shiron into Mary Jane’s huge kangaroo enclosure. We let him out of the bag, but as we are leaving, he hops after us. As usual, he dogs Tanja’s footsteps, which causes more tears to flow. After some time we manage to leave the enclosure. Shiron stands by the fence and heartbreakingly cries for his mum. Tanja rushes for the terrace. We spend the evening with Mary Jane who celebrates her birthday today, together with some friends.
Around 11 o’clock at night, Tanja and I go into the kangaroo enclosure and roll out our thermomats to spend the last night together with Shiron. I can hardly find any sleep and watch the starry sky. Shiron stands like frozen between Tanja’s sleeping bag and mine. I watch him thoughtfully and stroke his fur which has grown quite thick by now. Unbelievable how he has developed over the past 8 months When he came to us he weighed less than 1.6 kilograms and was barely able to stand on his feet, and today he is as heavy as 10 kilos. Before long he is going to be a big and strong kangaroo.
After a restless night I watch the sun rise. Dark clouds are gathering and it won’t take long for them to drain on us. Tanja is lying in her sleeping bag stroking Shiron, but little later the first raindrops urge us to hurry.
