I’ve long been a fan of wombats. The photo above is me cuddling a wombat while on sabbatical in Australia. They’re odd animals to be sure but the young ones are super snuggly.
But today on the sad occasion of the world’s oldest wombat’s passing, I learned a new fact about wombats: “Wombats can run 40 km/hr despite looking fat and slow.” That’s from the wonderfully written obituary for Hamlet.
I love the idea–as a heavy, stocky, muscular (pick your adjective) runner, that not all creatures who are fast look like they are fast. Sure we praise gazelles and jaguars, but look here’s the speedy wombat. I think the wombat might be my running role model. Go wombats go!
Love this! And it’s a good lesson– not everything that is fast looks fast. and vice versa. Same goes for strong, smart, etc… Love the wombat running, too. For me, I’m enamored of sea turtles– on land they’re awkward, and but water they are graceful and can go for up to thousands of miles.