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W von Papineäu
at Thu Sep 11 08:29:48 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]
THE OLYMPIAN (Olympia, Washington) 10 September 08 Hundreds volunteer to return tortoise to Mojave (Tom Hasslinger, Coeur d'Alene Press)
Coeur D'alene, Idaho: Dave and Ginger Ludwick were more than willing to give a desert tortoise a ride home with them.
The Ludwicks, vacationing from Palm Desert, Calif., at The Coeur d'Alene Resort, were headed back to the Golden State on Wednesday and offered to have the 10-inch reptile jump in their back seat.
After all, Sadie needs to get back to the Mojave Desert, which is where the couple live.
"It seems so natural. I don't think there's a more direct ride home," Ginger said.
The only thing keeping Sadie from the Ludwicks' back seat is a prior commitment.
More like 500 of them.
Since Sadie was discovered by a Plummer resident on the side of U.S. 95 and turned over to the Kiwani Wambli wildlife rehabilitation center in Cusick, Wash., center operator Dotty Cooper has been flooded with offers from the most unlikely sources volunteering to get the cold-blooded reptile back to its natural habitat.
"I've been on the telephone for days straight," Cooper said. "I'm going a little nuts."
Through the constantly ringing telephone, Cooper and her volunteers managed to put together a 300-500 person waiting list offering help.
So Sadie will get home, just not with the Ludwicks.
Cooper took in Sadie back in July after it was believed to be abandoned by the side of the highway. Hanging out at the rehab center during the hot summer months agreed with the tortoise, but with the Pacific Northwest fall on the horizon, it needs a ride home, pronto.
So Cooper broke the story to the local newspaper, the Newport Miner, not far from Spokane.
"All I was trying to do was catch a local snowbird," she said.
She got a lot more than that.
Talk shows started calling. CNN and newspapers called. Then more newspapers, even one from Paris that wanted to document Sadie's ride home in a photo journal. FedEx and Alaska Airlines offered to change their rules to accommodate a ride. Good Samaritans, who didn't have a car, wanted to donate gas money.
"It's unreal," Cooper said.
She's been rehabilitating reptiles and animals for four years, and hasn't seen anything this extreme.
"I think everyone is tired of the presidential elections and a nice, fuzzy humanitarian story sits well with them right now," she said.
What Cooper has called "Plan One A," involves Blythe, Calif., resident Wayne Cusick, who vacations in northwest Washington but lives in the Mojave Desert year-round.
Having secured the proper endangered species documents enabling Sadie to cross state lines, the two plan to embark south on Tuesday and head for a Bureau of Land Management natural wildlife rehabilitation center in California.
Since the tortoise came in contact with humans and could have possibly contracted germs, it can't just be released into the desert.
"It's been incredibly exciting," Cooper said about the whirlwind of attention.
She hopes it doesn't wane when Sadie hits the road. She has a destroyed storage barn the animals can't use and little financial support, which has made her contemplate shutting down shop more than once.
Still, it was fun having Sadie around. Exhausting, but fun.
"I heard we made David Letterman," she said. "But we found out Sadie is a boy. Can you believe it? All the papers and talk shows that called and we've been calling him Sadie. The vet said, 'By the way, she's a boy.' Maybe we should keep that quiet."
Hundreds volunteer to return tortoise to Mojave
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WA Press: Hundreds volunteer to return - W von Papineäu, Thu Sep 11 08:29:48 2008