We came from very different backgrounds, with different skills and interests. Marilyn Renfree was recognised as 'a giant of marsupial embryology'; I had spent my working life studying genes and chromosomes. We teamed up out of mutual respect (awe on my side) to form, with Des Cooper, the ARC Centre of Excellence in Kangaroo Genomics. This is the story of how our collaboration came to be, and what it has produced for our knowledge of some of the world's most remarkable animals.