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Little Ponderosa Zoo welcomes a new tortoise

Herbie the tortoise explored the tent serving as a temporary barn at the Little Ponderosa Zoo and Rescue. The founder vows to rebuild.

Saturday morning the Little Ponderosa Zoo in Clinton welcomed a new reptile resident. Adding animals is a sign of life for the rescue organization after a devastating fire almost two weeks ago.

"We've got the attitude now that we're going to move forward. We've got to move forward. We've got to rebuild" James Cox said.

Rich Spitz brought by his pet.

"My grandkids love him and everybody that comes to visit wants to pet his and see him and feed him," he said.

His name is Herbie. The 45 pound tortoise enjoys eating cabbage and exploring.

Herbie's owner Rich Spitz lives just down the road from Phil Boller who suggested a new home for Herbie.

"Rich travels a lot and I just live a quarter mile down the road and so when he is out of town I have the fun of feeding Herbie. I just thought he would be better off here at the zoo," Phil Boller said.

Rich agreed. "I'm happy for Herbie and after meeting Kaitlyn and James here at the zoo I couldn't be any happier. I think he'll have a great life."

Kaitlyn is a volunteer here and James Cox owns the Little Ponderosa Zoo and Rescue where several tortoises were among the fire victims.

"It helped me. Does me good to see Herbie running around and having a great time and seems to be settling in pretty quickly," James said.

A warm room is kept at 70 degrees for birds and ferrets and monkeys. It is where Herbie will spend most of his time.

"Herbie's going to move into that room today," James said.

The warm room is inside the big tent housing the fire survivors.

"This tent is great. We love it. We are thankful for it. But we need a permanent home for these animals and we're going to build that," James said.

He's confident that community support will continue.

"Little Ponderosa is strong. And we're going to stay strong. We've got the community behind us," he said.

As Herbie checked out his new companions at the Little Ponderosa his caregivers were already planning to come back to visit.

Rich said, "I fly out of Knoxville all the time and I'll stop by on my way back and forth."

"The grandkids love to come here so we will come see him," Phil said. "I think Herbie is going to be so much happier here."

Little Ponderosa Zoo has a fundraising goal of $200,000 by the end of the month.

James Cox said the best way to donate is directly on the Little Ponderosa Zoo website.

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