Cop saves baby kangaroo from eagle's clutches

Constable Scott Mason and Cuejoe. (Western Australia Police)

Late last month, a police officer in western Australia rescued an adopted baby kangaroo— an adorable joey named Cuejoe he had been caring for— after an eagle carried it away.

Cuejoe made its way to the police in March, after it was orphaned when a car killed its mother. The joey found a new parent in Scott Mason, a constable in Cue, Australia. Twitter posts from the Cue Police show Mason bottle-feeding Cuejoe, who is also seen hanging out in a cooler.

In a video posted on the Western Australia Police’s Facebook page on March 10, Mason explained that Cuejoe was about four months old. The video shows the kangaroo climbing into the officer’s shirt and hopping along behind him.

But things took a turn for the worse in late April, when Mason and Cuejoe were at an Aboriginal community called Burringurrah.

“On Wednesday the 27th April, Cuejoe was in the rear of the Burringurrah station yard, stretching his legs while Constable Mason was working,” Susan Usher, a media liaison officer for the Western Australia police, explained in an email to FoxNews.com.

A sizable wedge-tailed eagle “swooped down and picked up Cuejoe, carrying him out of the police yard,” Usher wrote.

The eagle had landed nearby with Cuejoe, and another eagle had descended, too. Mason ran over, scaring the eagles away, saving the adopted joey.

But Cuejoe was not unscathed.

“As a result of the incident, Cuejoe received talon wounds to his chest and face,” Usher wrote. “He received medical treatment at Burringurrah and is [recovering] well.”

Usher reports that both Cuejoe and Mason are now back in the town of Cue. Here’s hoping that Cuejoe continues to happily hop along and thrive.