Escaped emu finally reunited with family after being seen on doorbell camera
An escaped emu which hit the headlines when he was caught on doorbell cam footage has been reunited with his owners.
Police were alerted after Rodney the emu escaped his home and went on the run in the aptly named village of Loose in Kent, on Saturday lunchtime. He was picked up on Ring doorbell footage when he walked into the front drive of a house and went up to the door for a nose around, before being captured by officers.
The six-month-old flightless bird has since been reunited with his owners Mark and Sarah Stribbling-Williams, who say they are “delighted” to see him returned. Dad-of-five Mark, 47, said: “We’re so pleased to have Rodney back home. It’s amazing to see how his escapades have gone global – it’s been mental.”
Rodney is now back home
With owner Mark Stribbling-WilliamsThe couple bought the emu when he was four days old as a gift for their “animal-mad” son Luke, aged 13. They also purchased a female emu and decided to name the pair Rodney and Cassandra after characters in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
Sadly, Cassandra had to be put to sleep due to problems with her legs, so Rodney went to live in the stables with the family’s seven horses. Electrician Mark said: “My son Luke is mad on animals. He’s obsessed with chickens. He’s also got ducks and geese, and he’s had quails and golden pheasants. So, Sarah went out and bought him two emus.
Furious chimp launches bottle at girl filming him leaving her bleeding at zoo
“Rodney now lives in our stables with the horses, but he comes into the house quite often. The kids let him out and he runs around with the cats and dogs. I think he thinks he’s a dog. It’s very entertaining.”
According to Mark, Rodney is not shy of humans and regularly knocks on the door of the family house for attention. He added: “Any animal we have, we want it to be tame with our kids, so we handle and pet them all the time. They are our pets, we look after them and care for them, and they care back.
“When Rodney wants attention he knocks on the door of our house – I think that’s what he must’ve been doing when he rang that lady’s doorbell. He quite often knocks on the door for treats and I feed him blueberries. We even had him in our swimming pool in the summer. He’s really funny.”
The family hadn’t even realised Rodney was missing until a dogwalker asked if they’d lost an emu. Mark believes the bird must’ve escaped when their daughter left the stable door ajar. Thankfully Luke was able to catch up with the police and walk the emu back home to their house.
Rodney isn’t the only unusual pet that Mark and Sarah, 42, own. The couple also have seven geese, four ducks, 30 chickens, six dogs, a parrot, a bearded dragon, budgies, fish, a tortoise and seven horses. And it wasn’t the first time one of the menagerie of pets has managed to escape either.
Mark added: “A few years back, we also had two reindeer. One day, just before Christmas one of them escaped. A lady who lives nearby woke up, opened her curtains, and saw a reindeer in her garden. She thought Father Christmas had arrived early and left it as a present.”
Rodney was filmed on the Ring doorbell of pensioner Maureen Roberts. The 81-year-old was out having lunch with her daughter when she got a notification on her phone.
She said: “My daughter told me the Ring doorbell notification had come up to say that someone had come to visit. But I didn’t look at it. Then my neighbour called me and told me an escaped emu had come onto the driveway. I thought she was winding me up and I laughed it off. But it turned out she wasn’t joking!”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
