CINCINNATI POST (Ohio) 13 October 05 Rescued alligators relocated to Florida (Shelly Whitehead)
Even as a kid, Susan Fessler had a soft spot for offbeat underdogs.
Cartoons about the fabled fictional mongoose, Riki-Tiki-Tavi, were a childhood passion. And in adulthood, she developed another passion - for a snake-loving sideshow sword-swallower, who is now her husband, Travis Fessler.
Little wonder then that when Susan, a Boone County, Ky., animal control officer, pulled two skinny alligators out of a tank during an animal cruelty investigation in April, she felt she had to do something for the creatures.
Next Thursday, that something will take the Fesslers and the two now-thriving alligators 1,100 miles south to a Florida alligator refuge park where the gators gradually will be introduced to the semi-wild life.
The Fesslers are volunteering their time and car for the effort. And trip expenses are being funded with donations from visitors to the Boone County Animal Shelter.
More than $450 was given in about a month by animal-lovers touched by the alligators' story.
The pair - dubbed Quaffle and Snitch by the Harry Potter-enamored Fessler - were seized April 19 from J.A.J. Auto Body on Turfway Road in Florence, along with 19 boxers, six turtles and two frogs.
Jeremy Holbrook, 32, of Taylor Mill, is appealing last summer's conviction in Boone District Court on 20 violations of Boone County animal laws.
Boone County Animal Warden Becky Reiter said Holbrook relinquished control of all the reptiles seized in the case. The turtles and frogs were released to their new lives in their native Northern Kentucky habitat.
The alligators, however, presented a greater challenge both to nurture back to health, and then to release to a suitable home.
"When we took them out of the tank, they were covered in slime," Fessler said. "So I always wanted them to go somewhere and not just be put down because their lives had been so horrible."
"Where" ended up being Holiday Everglades Park in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which Fessler says has a good reputation as a destination for pet alligators seized in similar circumstances.
Park operators agreed to take the pair at no charge. Fessler just had to get them there.
Reiter credits Fessler's determination with making the plan a reality.
Reiter did not want to use county funds to pay for the reptiles' relocation, but she welcomed the placement of a donation jar at the shelter for the cause.
Money from the jar will pay for gas, meals and other expenses for the trip. The reptiles will travel in standard pet carriers in the Fesslers' car, stopping for a soak as needed every 12 hours.
The cream-and-black banded duo have grown about a foot each since their slippery rescue seven months ago.
"Their temperament has changed a lot," Fessler said of the gators. "At first they were very docile. But now, if you stick your hand in the tank, they'll go right up to it. They're getting more alligator-like."
And that is a good thing, considering where the pair are going and the size of some of their new neighbors.
Rescued alligators relocated to Florida