Okay, I Want One of These…

Rockford is a dog and cat kind of town. Okay, maybe some birds and fish too. And, perhaps a snake or alligator, even a tarantula or two, but that's about as exotic as we get around here.

Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe we do go a bit farther in the animal department. I have read, over the years, about people nursing an injured animal back to health. Deer, raccoons, eagles, owls, even a pelican (I'm looking at you, Hoo Haven) have been saved from certain death by kind-hearted folks. But, as far as I can tell, not a single wombat is among them. For that, we need to head waaaaaay south to Tasmania.

Luckily for Derek the baby wombat, one of those kind-hearted folks that I mentioned was nearby in Derek's time of need. Derek's mother was killed by a car, and Derek was found near the side of the road by a guy named....wait for it...Derek. Hence the name.

Now, I wouldn't have known what to do if I had found an orphaned baby wombat (I wouldn't have even known what the creature was, to be honest), but Derek did. He got in touch with a woman known to locals as "The Wombat Lady of Flinders Island," who gladly agreed to take over care of Derek.

Take a look at this, and tell me you don't want one of these running around the backyard:

Or, running around the kitchen...

Or, hanging with the dog...