Students who attend classes with floral design and agriculture teacher Meagan Crandall may have heard her plans to own and care for a baby kangaroo. As of a few weeks ago, her plan jumped into motion with Rocket, her juvenile kangaroo, occasionally seen hopping around the agriculture building on campus.

“Rocket is my personal kangaroo, we have five other ones that live on a high fence property with a bunch of other exotic animals, but I keep Rocket at home,” Crandall said. “I just bring him up here because, how often do you get to see a baby kangaroo?” 

Rocket is a male kangaroo who is predicted to grow around five feet tall and weigh 180 pounds, which will take around four to five years. However, Rocket has the chance of possessing a special gene that could allow him to grow past six feet tall and weigh up to 300 pounds.

Since his arrival, students got to see and study Rocket’s personality. 

“If you want to pet him, it’s fine, but just don’t pet him on the face, you have to pet him on the body and two or three people have to go at a time, “junior Sofia Rogers said.“He can’t be overcrowded because he’ll get overwhelmed and when that happens he tends to hop away or bite.” 

Even though there’s been a baby kangaroo hopping around class, it hasn’t taken students’ attention away from learning and instead has made them more excited to attend their floral design or agricultural class. 

“I think Rocket has just made the class more fun,” Freshman Corbin Edwards Said. “Everyone’s like ‘oh, Rockets here,’ because Ms. Crandall doesn’t bring him out every day. So it’s just fun when you get to see him and pet him. Everything just seems more lighthearted and fun.”