Exotic animal reunited with owner

05:52 PM PST on Friday, November 12, 2004

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN and KELLY LOVE / KGW Staff

KELSO, Wash. -- It’s a wallaby, it’s a giant rodent -- it’s a … a … what is it?

A confounded Kelso homeowner found a strange, exotic animal wandering around his front yard on Thursday.

“I thought it was a jackalope without horns,” joked Coy Middletone. “It's a real gentle little rodent, mammal whatever,” he said.

He called the sheriff’s department and at first, authorities thought the animal was a small kangaroo. They turned it over to the Cowlitz County Humane Society, where an employee identified the furry brown, log-legged creature as a capybara, the word’s largest rodent, and endemic to South America.

KGW

The exotic South American animal was taken to the Humane Society.

However, upon further inspection, animal experts concluded that the animal is actually a Patagonian cavy, also known as a Patagonian mara. The South American animal is the world’s second largest rodent and a distant relative of the guinea pig.

Eventually, its owner came forward. On Friday, Kelso resident Jessica Croy identified the cavy as her pet, Nicky.

“He’s a really nice animal … he doesn’t bite, he’s not aggressive … he talks back to you, you know, he makes his little ee, ee, ee, ee, ee noise,” Croy said, gathering Nicky up in her arms.

So how did the cavy get loose?

Croy, who owns many animals, including other exotic species, said her pot-bellied pigs knocked over Nicky's pen in the yard.

She said she's happy to have her pet back after finding out he was missing when a friend spotted Nicky on the television news. The animal was found within several blocks of Croy's home.

Kelso authorities said keeping a cavy as a pet in Wash. is legal, but the animal must be registered.

In the wild, cavies live in arid grasslands in South America and can run up to 35 miles per hour. They have been described as looking part rabbit, part miniature antelope, part kangaroo. The animals are known to form life-long, monogamous bonds.

(KGW reporter Keely Chalmers also contributed to this story.)