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Golden Retriever Saves Baby Koala

September 28, 2018

Kerry McKinnon says she "burst out laughing" when she walked out onto the porch in Victoria and found a baby koala nestled on top of her golden retriever.

"Poor Asha didn't know what to think, she just kept looking at me with such a confused look," McKinnon told Metro.

While Asha had been out sleeping on the porch, it's likely the koala was looking for somewhere warm.

"I think the baby koala fell out of his mum's pouch and didn't know what to do," McKinnon said. "Asha definitely saved the koala's life by keeping him warm. Temperatures at night in the area can go below 5C. It would have died out there if left alone all night."

When McKinnon tried to separate the two, she says the koala put up a huge fuss and didn't want to leave Asha.

"I think dogs have that protective instinct. The koala didn't want to leave Asha's back. When we took the koala off to wrap it in a blanket, it hissed at me and carried on," she said.

McKinnon eventually had the koala looked at by a vet and is now being cared for by a local rehabilitation worker before it can be released into the wild.