Editor’s note: All opinions, columns and letters reflect the view of the individual writer and necessarily those of the IDS or its staffers.
It’s easy to forget I live in a city when I drive 20 minutes south of Bloomington to volunteer at a place you wouldn’t think you could. Through winding roads, rows of farmhouses and ranch style homes, sits one house — overgrown with weeds and greenery, different from all the others because there’s two capybaras in the backyard.
This farmhouse is the Pipsqueakery, home to patagonian maras, prairie dogs, peacocks, goats, sheep, flying squirrels and many other animals. The first animals I cared for at the refuge were two capybaras, Milo and Vinny. They had come from a petting zoo where they were housed improperly. Capys are sensitive to the cold since they’re from South America, so Milo and Vinny lost a couple toes from winter weather at the petting zoo…