A trip to the Fall City Wallaby Ranch is like visiting a weird paradise populated by cuddly, bouncing freaks where both the animals and your hosts have your emotional wellbeing in mind.
Located on an acre of idyllic pastureland in Washington State's Snoqualmie Valley aka the Valley of the Moon, Fall City Wallaby Ranch has provided a loving home to generations of grey and albino Bennett's wallabies, wallaroos, and red kangaroos under the care of owners Rex and Tawny Paperd.
Licensed by the USDA as official breeders of the roos, the Paperds have long seen the critters more as family members than anything else. The ranch's mission is multifold. Some of their programs involve local educational institutions, by providing outreach to school children who benefit from wallabies entering their classrooms for an incredible hands-on learning experience. Others extend to raising young roos as service animals to those in need of companionship for a wide range of mental and physical ailments. That's right – service dogs could be a thing of the past if the Wallaby Ranch has their way!
Perhaps best of all, anyone curious about wallabies and kangaroos is invited to arrange a private tour of the Wallaby Ranch. For a modest fee, small groups are brought through the grounds to see this strange paradise's inner workings. A minimum of ten persons are required to pre-arrange such a jaunt, but once it's underway, participants are told about the intricacies of raising the creatures while touring kangaroo playgrounds, the baby animal nurseries, and more. In the end, everyone is given a chance to meet, hold (and sometimes feed!) the wallabies themselves.
Go on. Just try hugging a young albino wallaby and see if a smile doesn't creep across your face…