One Australian family had an unusual, surprise ornament on its tree when it came home.
The Guardian reported Taylah McKormick, 16, was the last of her family to leave the Adelaide house Wednesday about 3 p.m. She said she let the family dog out in the yard before she left.
When the family was back about 6 p.m. and Taylah brought the dog back inside, something was off.
“I think the dog went straight to the Christmas tree and was sniffing around, and Mum thought that was a bit weird,” Taylah said.
Ornaments were on the floor, and when Taylah’s mother, Amanda McCormick, looked up, she saw the koala in the tree.
“It was pretty tangled up in the lights. It was a fake tree and very old, but she still tried eating the leaves off it,” Taylah said. “I saw her munch down on some, but she stopped when she realized it was plastic.”
“I thought, ‘Is this a joke?’ I thought one of my kids may have put like a soft toy in there, but no, it was a live one,” Amanda McCormick said.
“We’ve had them in our trees before but not inside on our Christmas tree,” she said. “It must have crawled in when the doors were open; it would have been in our house for at least three hours.”
Amanda McCormick called the Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue for help, but according to a Facebook post from the group, the hotline operator thought it was a prank at first.
“Apparently it took a little bit of convincing that, no … Amanda really did have a koala in her Christmas tree … It was just so gorgeous, seeing it sitting there just looking,” rescue co-founder Dee Hearne-Hellon told The Guardian.
Rescuers eventually arrived and were able to safely retrieve the koala, thought to be a female about 3 or 4 years old and in good health.
Taylah shared a video of the young koala in the tree on TikTok, where it has more than 200,000 likes.
Hearne-Hellon said it’s likely the marsupial came in the house just for the tree.
“It’s not actually that hot, so they wouldn’t be seeking shade, particularly at the moment,” she said. “They are curious, and they are in the suburbs, and if they see something that they want to have a look at, they’ll just drop in and have a look.”
The koala, whom the family named Daphne, was released into a tree in a bushy area nearby. Taylah captured her release in another video posted on TikTok.
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