Kangaroos in Kentucky

This morning I called into my favorite radio program, the Z-ROCK 103 Morning Show. The topic being discussed was "Things you tell people that they never believe". On my whole drive into work, I debated calling with my story and then finally broke down and called in with my famous Kangaroo sightings story. Quite a few people have asked me to go into detail, so here it goes:

When I was a senior in high school (9 years ago...I can't believe it's been that long, sheesh I'm getting old), I was driving home from my boyfriend's house one Saturday night around 1am. I was driving down Barnes Mill Road going back to my mom's house (Richmond folks - this was the in-town Barnes Mill Rd., so I was literally a half mile from campus when this happened) when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw a large animal HOPPING through yards next to my car. All of a sudden it darted from a yard out into the road right in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes and stopped in the middle of the road. The animal stopped as well and I got a perfect look at it for around 10 seconds as it stood illuminated in my headlights. It wasn't a dog, it wasn't a deer, it was a freaking kangaroo. It looked exactly like this:


Hellooooo Erin. I'm a kangaroo.

 We both stared at each other and then it hopped off behind someone's house. I immediately went home and woke my mom up to tell her. She totally didn't believe me and neither did my sister. They both insisted I had seen a dog. Trust me, if you see a kangaroo, there is no mistaking it for any other animal.

A week goes by and again, it's Saturday night and I'm coming home at 1am from being out with friends. I see the kangaroo again! This time it's hopping around in yards near my mom's house. The next day, I tell other members of my family and friends. No one believes me and jokes around that I must have been drinking.

A few weeks later, I get a call from my mom one evening. When I answer, she immediately says "I will never doubt you again. I just saw a kangaroo in the backyard". It turns out, she was taking my dog outside to use the bathroom when Ginger started going nuts, barking near a large bush. My mom said the bush started rustling and shaking and the kangaroo hopped out, looked at her and took off hopping in the opposite direction. This helped reassure me that I wasn't crazy. Haha.

That was the last we've seen of the Richmond, KY Kangaroo. However, in the years since, I've done some research and found information such as this that discuss kangaroo sightings in Kentucky:

http://unusualkentucky.blogspot.com/2009/02/kangaroos-in-kentucky.html

Also, while called into the radio show this morning, the host Twitch did some internet research while I was on the air and talked about how he found other reports of kangaroos in Central Kentucky and even an article about a circus train that derailed in the late 1800's. I further looked around about this and found 3 different circus railcars that derailed or crashed in Kentucky during the 1880's. I'm currently doing some more research and will post with any updates I find.

Have any other Kentucky people out there seen a wild kangaroo?