Long-time dog and cat owner Doneva Littlefield always thought she’d like a monkey if she ever got an exotic pet.
But when a friend of hers became overwhelmed last June by two baby kangaroos he’d bought, she hopped at the chance to take them in.
She had no idea what she was getting into and a year later her pet and her hometown of Durango, Colorado, have become repeated international viral sensations.
The older ‘roo, Irwin (named after the iconic zookeeper Steve) escaped from her home not once, but twice – all of it caught on camera by cops who wrangled him back to safety.
The first time in October prompted a 911 call from a confused local who said a kangaroo with a diaper was walking down the street,
Just last week, Irwin absconded again – only to be tracked close by near a neighbor’s house.
As officers tried to get within distance to grab him, Irwin took a jump – straight into the arms of one of the officers.
‘The kangaroo was a lot nicer than I thought it’d be,’ Durango Officer Shane Garrison, 24, tells Daily Mail.
He was so touched by the experience, in fact, that he offered up his family’s 40-acre farm as a possible new home for the kangaroo brothers when Doneva’s husband stopped by the station to pick Irwin up.
Doneva Littlefield purchaed two red kangaroos last June from a friend who’d brought them to Colorado from a breeder in Texas; she says she had ‘no idea what I was stepping into’ when it came to the care demands for the marsupial brothers
‘He was talking about rehoming it, and I kind of just pitched him the idea of me taking him home – and it kind of just grew from there,’ Officer Garrison says.
It’s a possibility being considered by Doneva and her spouse, Brian.
‘My husband hasn’t been as much on board with this (keeping kangaroos) as I’ve been,’ she says.
‘He’s just handed the check book over every time I’ve needed something.’
Keeping the kangaroos costs them up to $600 a month, a bill far more expensive than either of them could have imagined.
They did have an inkling that it wouldn’t be easy.
The kangaroos’ first owner said he initially thought it would be ‘a lot of fun’, but the costs quickly became overwhelming.
Doneva says she spends about $600 a month on kangaroo care, including for the adult diapers she adapts by cutting out holes for the ‘roos’ tails; Irwin, pictured, loves stealing stuffed toys
Irwin and Roo eat alongside the Littlefields pet dogs, an Australian shepherd and Shih Tzu mix
Still, Doneva offered to buy them, and fell in love with them at first sight, she says.
Irwin was about seven months old and his little brother, Roo, was around two months younger when they arrived in their new Colorado home.
They were jumping into special pouches made out canvas and soft blanket-like material to mirror their mother’s body.
She purchased Roo and Irwin for $3,000 each.
The ‘roos took over the bedroom of Doneva’s daughter, who was heading off to college.
She prepared bottles filled half with evaporated milk and half with water and fitted them with adult diapers.
Doneva began feeding the joeys bottles filled half with evaporated milk and half with water before graduating the ‘roos to grains and fruit; they particularly love watermelon and corn
Irwin and Roo began their lives at the LIttlefields’ home by sleeping in their pouches in the bedroom of Doneva’s daughter Paxton (pictured) who had just finished high school and was going off to college
The kangaroos initially slept in pouches made of canvas and blanket-like soft material to mirror their mother’s body
Irwin, she says fondly, ‘has been a menace since the day we got him.’
‘There’s no boundaries with that kangaroo,’ she says. ‘If I’m eating something and he’s near me, he’s trying to get it from me … he’s grabbing everything.’
Irwin, she says, has ‘always been very in key with what’s going on around him, and he wants to be with humans,’ she says.
She adds that he loves attention, and his stunts show he certainly knows how to get it, too.
Last October, when the kangaroos were younger and still spending most of the time inside the home, Irwin absconded from a door Brian had left open while Doneva was in New Mexico.
She’d taken the kangaroos out in Durango before, meaning that Irwinn ‘knew where he was going, and he knew exactly how to get home.
‘As soon as the police started running into him … he ran straight back, right to our house, right to our backyard.
That’s where the police – and Brian – found him.
‘My husband just took off his sweater and held it like a pouch, and Irwin came hopping right in the pouch,’ she says.
Irwin first escaped at night last October in downtown Durango; he was eventually recovered by police and Doneva’s husband, who held out his shirt to mirror a pouch before Irwin hopped in
Irwin was already basking in viral fame when he escaped for a second time last week, though Durango officers quickly took him into custody near a neighbor’s home
More than six months went by without incident as the ‘roos kept growing.
But Irwin – who now reaches Doneva’s eye level when standing and weighs 70 pounds -unexpectedly went exploring again on May 19.
Doneva had gone five or six nights without sleep.
In a bid to get accustomed to the kangaroos living outside, she’s been sleeping during the day and staying up all night to check on the ‘roos every 15 minutes.
Around 6am last Monday, however, she glanced outside for her routine check – and Irwin was nowhere to be found.
She ran back inside ‘in a panic’ to wake up her husband, and they began combing the streets of Durango.
He husband went to file a police report – only to be told that Irwin had already been picked up and dropped off at the humane society.
But not before Officer Garrison’s body camera footage recorded the hilarious capture, as well as his comment about how soft Irwin’s fur felt.
Officers wrangled Irwin into the back of a police vehicle last week and dropped him off at the local humane society before the Littlefields picked him up
Officer Shane Garrison, carrying Irwin last week, grew up on a nearby 40-acre
Doneva doesn’t know exactly how Irwin escaped, but she believes it was by mistake.
She wonders if a wild animal patrolling the street, like a raccoon, spooked him and sparked him to jump over the fence surrounding their yard.
Since he’s returned, she says, they’ve been shoring up the enclosure and reinstalled a pulsating electric fence – but the offer of a farm may seem like the best option.
‘What we’re doing is unsustainable,’ she says. ‘I can’t keep doing this.’
They’re visiting Officer Garrison’s farm and ‘family compound’ this weekend, he says; it’s where he grew up ‘capturing calves and goats, horses, things like that.’
‘It’d be cool to be able to raise a kangaroo and hopefully make them have a better life, where [Irwin] can run around and be normal,’ he says.
‘Normal’ might be a stretch when it comes to marsupials leaping through the fields of southwestern Colorado; Doneva has spent the past year watching pedestrians do double-takes outside her house and motorists nearly run stop signs.
She’s thrilled that her ‘roos have become woven into the fabric of Durango’s community – and hopes to work out visits whenever she wants if her pets resettle on nearby farmland, Officer Garrison’s or otherwise.
‘No matter what it’s cost me or what, I’ve gained a lifetime of beauty and peace with having these creatures,’ she says.
