Something pretty strange, but ultimately heartwarming is currently taking place in a eucalyptus forest outside Sydney, Australia that’s guaranteed to make you smile once you accept that it’s actually happening: The Make-A-Wish Foundation just sent Tony Hawk to hang out with a dying Koala for the day.
Huh. Didn’t know they did this sort of thing for animals, but it sounds like it’s pretty nice.
When seven-year-old koala Buzzy was diagnosed with leukemia, his life began to seem pretty bleak. He could no longer spend his time doing his favorite activities like eating leaves and scratching other koalas with his huge claws, and it was clearly making him depressed. That’s when the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped up in a major way, which is apparently something they do for non-humans, and made a miracle happen: They got legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk to fly to Australia and spend the day with Buzzy to give him a once-in-a-lifetime pro-skater adventure!
Absolutely beautiful! It’s so amazing that Make-A-Wish apparently does these sorts of things for animals, and for all we know has been doing it for years!
“I had an amazing day doing kickflips and shove-its for Buzzy while he ate eucalyptus leaves and occasionally looked at me,” Tony Hawk told reporters after spending the afternoon with the brave terminally ill koala. “At one point he tried to bite me, and later he took a shit on the ground, and later we posed for a photo and he pissed on me. It was emotionally difficult, but it felt amazing to be able to give back to a critter like this.”
Make-A-Wish has already captured this special meeting between the legendary skateboard and the parasite-ridden leukemia patient in a series of heartwarming Instagram photos that have naturally drummed up some major internet love. One photo shows Tony Hawk placing Buzzy on his skateboard while the koala screams and thrashes in an attempt to get back to his eucalyptus leaves, while another shows Tony offering Buzzy some eucalyptus leaves while Buzzy ignores him and instead screams at another koala with his claws extended. They’re the kind of images that will make even the most hard-hearted cynic say, “It turns out Make-A-Wish sends celebrities to hang out with animals, and I didn’t know that before.”
It’s official: This is the most informative thing you’re going to read for the rest of the winter. Hats off to Tony Hawk for taking time out of his busy schedule to do some skateboard tricks for Buzzy the sick koala! This is a magical day that he’ll never forget if koalas have good memories, but if they don’t have good memories he will forget, but it won’t be because it was bad, it will be because his brain is an animal’s brain and is mostly designed to think about shitting and eating eucalyptus leaves. It just goes to show that the Make-A-Wish Foundation does this kind of thing with animals!
