PLATTE CITY, Mo. — The strange tale of Noah the Wandering Wallaby took center stage at a Platte City Public Safety meeting on Tuesday night, as his owners say that if they can’t keep the marsupial, then they will be leaving town and taking him with them.
Noah escaped from his owner’s home on Thanksgiving Day, eventually wandering to a nearby nursing home where he got trapped inside a fence – but not before causing some unexpected holiday excitement among the residents of the home. Since then, Noah has been a resident at the Kansas City Zoo, as owning exotic animals is against the law in Platte City.
“I’m not drunk, there’s a kangaroo or wallaby just ran past my house,” said one caller to authorities on Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday, residents and officials began the process of changing the city ordinance to allow some exotic animals, and several people – including Noah’s owner, 16-year-old Emily Wood, spoke to the committee.
Wood, reading a letter that her mother wrote the mayor, told the commitee that they would add another gate to make sure Noah didn’t escape again. She says that the family, who relocated to Platte City a year ago, likes the area and don’t want to leave, but will if they have to.
“We are adjusting quite nicely to our schools and wouldn’t like to have to move, if we didnt have too, in order to keep him. But if it came down to it, we would,” said Wood.
The committee says that they will have another meeting on the issue before coming up with a recommendation for the city. It’s expected that they will pass that recommendation along to the Platte City Board of Alderman sometime after the first of the year.
Until that time, Noah will stay at the Kansas City Zoo unless the Wood family finds a safe and legal place to keep him.
