Originally published 2018-10-11.
Early one cold morning in late September 2018, Kerry McKinnon stepped onto the back porch of her home in Strathdownie, a farming district in western Victoria, Australia, and found her five-year-old golden retriever, Asha, lying perfectly still with a baby koala curled into her fur. The little joey had apparently wandered in out of the dark and chosen the warmest thing it could find. A vet checked it over, and it was handed to a local koala carer to be raised until it could return to the bush.
The pictures travelled around the world within days. They are lovely, but the story behind them also says a lot about how young koalas grow up, why a joey can end up alone on the ground, and what anyone should do if they find one.
What happened on the McKinnon porch
Overnight temperatures in that part of Victoria had dropped to around 5°C (41°F). Kerry's husband spotted the unusual pair first and called her outside. At first she had no idea what he meant; then she saw a tiny grey koala sitting on top of the family dog.
Her reaction was laughter rather than alarm. Asha, she said, looked puzzled and a little sheepish, glancing at her owner and back at the joey, but she made no attempt to shake it off. She simply lay there and let the small animal stay pressed against her back.
Kerry's own theory is the simplest one: the joey most likely tumbled from its mother, could not find her again, wandered toward the house, and found the dogs asleep in their beds. Speaking to News.com.au, she put the outcome plainly:
“Asha definitely saved the koala’s life by keeping him warm. He would have died out there if left alone all night.”
Separating the two turned out to be the hard part. The joey clung on and protested loudly when the family lifted it away to wrap it in a blanket, even hissing at Kerry. Once it was settled, they took it to a vet with koala experience, and it was later placed with a licensed local carer.
Kerry McKinnon with Asha, the five-year-old golden retriever whose thick coat kept the joey warm on a near-freezing night in Strathdownie, Victoria.
The joey perched on Asha's back on the porch. Riding on an adult's back is exactly what young koalas do with their mothers once they leave the pouch, which may explain why it settled so quickly.
A close view of the joey holding on to Asha's fur. Its fully furred grey coat suggests it was old enough to have started leaving the pouch, but still far too young to survive on its own.
Asha stayed calm throughout. Many dogs would react to a wild animal on their back; her patience is a big part of why the joey came through unharmed.
The joey after it was lifted off Asha and wrapped in a blanket. Keeping a young koala warm, quiet and dark is the first thing wildlife carers recommend while help is on the way.
Asha (with a second family dog) back on the lawn. The McKinnons' photos were distributed by the agency Caters News and quickly went viral.
Photos: Kerry McKinnon / Caters News
How a joey ends up alone
A newborn koala weighs no more than about half a gram. It is born tiny and undeveloped, and crawls straight into its mother's pouch. It stays there for roughly six to seven months, feeding and growing. By about six months it is fully furred and starts peering out; by around nine months it has its adult coat colour, weighs about a kilogram and has left the pouch for good.
For the next stretch of its life the young koala travels on its mother's back, learning to climb by gripping branches while she moves through the trees. It is not fully weaned until around twelve months, and it usually stays close to her range until it is one and a half to two years old.
That back-riding phase is the risky one. A joey can lose its grip, be startled off during a fall or a disturbance, or become separated when the mother is injured, hit by a car or chased. A small koala on the ground at night is in real danger: it is easy prey for foxes and dogs, and it can chill quickly because it has not yet built up much body fat.
Seen in that light, the joey's choice makes sense. Young koalas are wired to cling to a large, warm, furry body. A sleeping golden retriever was probably the nearest thing to its mother it could find.
Was Asha really a hero?
Commenters online called Asha a hero almost immediately, and in a practical sense she did help. Her warmth may well have kept the joey alive through the coldest hours, and her presence would have discouraged a fox.
It is worth being honest about the other side, though. Asha did not go out and rescue anything; the joey came to her, and the best thing she did was stay calm. Dogs in general are a serious threat to koalas in Australia. Together with cars, dog attacks are estimated to kill around 4,000 koalas a year, about two-thirds of recorded koala deaths. A gentle, well-socialised dog lying still is the exception, not the rule.
So the warm takeaway is not that dogs and koalas belong together. It is that this particular dog behaved remarkably well, and her family then did the right thing by getting the joey to people who knew how to care for it.
How people reacted online
Once the photos spread on social media, the comments poured in. Most were simple delight, plenty were puns on the word “retriever”, and a few were the kind of affectionate exaggeration that animal stories always attract. Here is a selection of the public reactions shared under the story.
Facebook comments on the story: readers praising Asha as a “good doggo”, joking that the retriever was simply doing her job, and wishing they could cuddle both animals.
Television news picked the story up as well. The clip below, shared by 7News Brisbane, shows the pair together.
Where koalas stand today
Koalas are not rare in every part of Australia, which is one reason a stray joey turning up near a Victorian farmhouse is believable. In some parts of Victoria, such as Cape Otway and French Island, koalas are so abundant that they over-graze their food trees.
Nationally, though, the picture is more worrying. The IUCN reassessed the koala as Vulnerable in 2014, and in February 2022 the Australian government listed it as Endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Habitat clearing, drought, bushfires, disease such as chlamydia, cars and dogs all take a toll. Population estimates vary widely depending on the method used, which is why researchers keep refining how koalas are counted.
Against that background, every joey that makes it into a carer's hands and back to the wild matters a little more than it might seem.
If you find a koala joey or injured wildlife
Most people will never find a koala on their dog, but the general advice applies to any young or injured wild animal:
- Keep pets away. Put dogs and cats inside, even if they seem calm. A friendly sniff can still injure or terrify a small animal.
- Keep it warm, dark and quiet. If the animal is clearly alone and cold, wrapping it loosely in a towel or blanket and placing it in a box in a quiet room reduces stress.
- Do not feed it or give it water. Koala joeys need specialised care, and the wrong food or milk can make them seriously ill.
- Call for help quickly. In Australia, contact a local wildlife rescue organisation (in Victoria, Wildlife Victoria is the main statewide service) or take the animal to a vet. Licensed carers can raise joeys and release them when they are ready.
- Handle it as little as possible. Koalas have sharp claws and, as Kerry discovered, a joey that feels threatened will make its feelings known.
Asha's story ended well because a calm dog, an observant family and a trained carer each played their part. That combination, more than any single act of heroism, is what gives young wildlife a second chance.
Sources: CBS News, “Lost baby koala cuddles with golden retriever to stay warm” (28 September 2018); Wikipedia: Koala (joey development, conservation status, threats); original interview with Kerry McKinnon by News.com.au; photos by Kerry McKinnon, distributed by Caters News; video via 7News Brisbane.
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