Rupert the pet wallaby found after going missing from Monee family's backyard: owner
MONEE, Ill. (WLS) -- A pet wallaby that went missing from a Monee yard on Tuesday night has been found, his owner said on Saturday.
Rupert, a wallaby, escaped from a pen in the family's yard on Tuesday night.
Rupert is two-foot tall and weighs about 45 pounds, according to owner Josie Hange.
Wallabies are are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea, but Rupert is considered an indoor pet that Hange said was probably frightened and skittish outside.
ABC7 was with Hange on Friday when she got a call of a sighting of her runaway wallaby Rupert.
"This is the first visual spotting," Hange said. "Somebody caught him on camera so I have to get him today."
Video showed the missing marsupial hopping along the property of ken Zeilstra's nearby home.
"All of sudden I looked out the window and there he was," said Zeilstra. "We don't see things like that out here. It doesn't happen."
Hange and a small group of volunteers, including some from Tinley Park PAWS were searching nearby.
"I've done dogs cats birds tortoises, a deer, a horse, but this is my first wallaby," said Jenny Kowalksi with Tinley Park PAWS Lead Rescue Team. "We just want him to know a familiar scent with him so Josie carries around his blanket. We have scent items around their house."
Hange had been out every morning and night since Rupert vanished, doing everything she can to find her AWOL wallaby that's part of the family.
"Frantic, chaos, I'm not going to lie I'm very emotional and there are too many to count at this point," said Hange. "More than anything, worry. I'm a mom. So it's worry. I'm scared."
Hange said she was hoping for more resources and more volunteers to find Rupert, because there was a lot of ground to cover. She even called in friends of friends to search the fields by drone and looking on the ground for well-defined Wallaby tracks.
"We just want him home safe," said Hange.
Luckily, he is now!
