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Indoor animalia in Parkland

A unique experience awaits visitors

Debbie Dolittle-Penwell stops for a snuggle with Penelope the miniature piglet. Photo credit: Jessica Corey-Butler

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The Jozee Rooz Indoor Petting Zoo should be a setting for a series of children's books, along the lines of Dr. Dolittle-meets-Pippi Longstocking. Here, a Zebu calf munches peacefully at the manger with a collection of goats, a brown and white pony, and some sheep.  The pony and goats are immediately recognizable.  The sheep are mildly less so, given their recent haircuts.  And the Zebu calf is a bit of a mystery until head zookeeper/ mastermind behind the organization, Debbie Dolittle-Penwell, explains that it's basically the sacred cow of India, sometimes called the Brahman.

The calf is not the only exotic four-legged furry thing visitors at the zoo can experience and interact with. In one corner, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the miniature pig and piglets running around and tucked under his blanket, is a baby South American Capybara. "Right now he looks kind of like a large guinea pig," Dolittle-Penwell explained.  In the opposite corner, happy in their enclosure despite its open door, sits José and his wife, petting zoo namesake wallaby/walleroo Jozee.  As she hops in her distinctive mini-kangaroo gait, her bump becomes conspicuous. Jodee, the baby wallaby forming in Jozee's pocket, isn't poking her head out yet; she's still forming in the pouch.

All told, there are about 50 animals in the petting zoo.  In addition to the domestics and exotics listed above, there are also chickens and rabbits and a rotating cast of characters brought in from the 10-acre farm in nearby Spanaway that Dolittle-Penwell and her partner Donny Miller share.  Dolittle-Penwell and Miller started out as competitors, actually. Dolittle-Penwell spent her life around animals, starting out with rabbits at 4H as a youth, moving on to animal rescue, petting zoos and pony (a unicorn!) rides.

Eventually she began supplying animals to her church's live nativity, and from there began an informal petting zoo, inviting people out to her farm to interact with the animals. She stopped just short of making that a business, explaining, "regulations are harder."

Another of her business was utilizing goats for brush-clearing, which she advertised in Craigslist.  Miller was also brush clearing, also on Craigslist, which was how the two met.  "He (Miller) has an ongoing joke that he had to take out the competition," Dolittle-Penwell said with a smile.  In addition to running the Jozee Rooz Indoor Petting Zoo, the couple also brings animals to parties, fairs, seasonal activities like pumpkin patches and large corporate events.  In the summer and during Zoolights, Miller offers camel rides at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium as a side business, and the couple's menagerie has recently expanded to include reindeer.

While she's stopped rescuing animals herself, explaining, "rescuing will kill you - you have to know when to say no," she still tries to direct people to resources.  But mostly, she puts her energy into keeping the Jozee Rooz Indoor Petting Zoo a clean and happy place to be in advance of its one-year anniversary, Jan. 31.  

JOZEE ROOZ INDOOR PETTING ZOO, 120 138th St. South, Suite C, Tacoma, 253.539.5011, indoorpettingzoo.com

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