Izzy’s New Sidekick

WAITSBURG - She's nine, barely 2.5 feet high and weighs a "petite" 150 pounds.

He's three, as tall as an NBA star and still growing, and weighs just 200 pounds shy of half a ton. Oh yeah, and he has a hump that's the envy of quasimodo.

If this were a pair of humans, they'd be considered a pretty odd couple.

But as Waitsburg's celebrity camel and his new sidekick, they're perfect together. At least so believes the owner of Izzy the camel and Whinnie, a miniature Sicilian donkey.

"With his size, Izzy sometimes intimidates the younger kids when we're doing photos," Mickey Richards said during a recent early morning interview in the pasture on the edge of town where the duo can be seen "hanging" with their three painted equine pals. "She's very gentle, so makes for a good balance," he said.

Izzy's very gentle too, largely because he's grown up around humans and considers them family. Yes, that includes the smallest infants whom he can be seen nuzzling in their carriage on Main Street once in a while. Unlike many camels, Izzy doesn't even spit.

But there's just something about having a hairy snout many times your own size breathing heavily within inches that can be a tad overwhelming for, say, a preschooler.

Besides, Izzy's on the biblical circuit and what could be better for his upcoming Nativity gigs than an a--, um, sorry, donkey, for a companion.

"She's the surprise package," grandmother Lois Winchester said. "She's the bonus."

The pair is up for an annual appearance at the Yakima Adventist Church and lined up for a new booking at an Adventist church in Milton- Freewater. Though he will be missing the Waitsburg Christmas parade again this year, he will make rounds in town around the holidays, "as the world's largest reindeer (with real reindeer antlers)," Winchester said.

Not that Izzy needs to impersonate another species to polish up his Hollywood credential. The de facto town mascot is gaining rock star status in the Pacific Northwest. He was mentioned recently on the Seattle-based National Public Radio affiliate KUOW in a show about sound recordings. On Ross Reynolds' "The Conversation" on Nov. 1, phonogra- pher and sound artist Chris DeLaurenti mentioned a recent trip to Waitsburg by sound designer Peter Comley (www.kuow.prg/program.php?id=21751).

Comley, who lives in Se­attle and records sounds for, among others, Microsoft video games, read about Izzy in the Seattle Times. The throaty "speech" camels have works great as the basis for noises strange fictional crea­tures can make. It sounds a bit like the Star Wars charac­ter Chewbacca. It's so unique only one other animal shares the talent: the walrus - hardly a fuzzy mammal you want to get close to with a micro­phone on a boom. Sure, he said in a phone interview, there are cam­els

on the west side - Port Orchard has a couple, for instance. But for a good sound recording there's way too much urban noise: cars, overhead planes, you name it. That din is to a sound art­ist

what dust on a lens is to a photographer, he explained.

When he arrived in Waits­burg to hook up with Rich­ards and Izzy, even the High­way 12 pasture was too noisy so the trio drove up Wilson Hollow Road. The camel responded to Richards' pes­tering

on cue. Anything that irritates Izzy, such as leaning against his hump, will get him "talking," Richards said. "It was almost as though he knew what he was supposed to do for the guy." Comley said Izzy's sounds won't be used in a video game because he recorded it on his own time. But it may eventually go into a sound library. He still raves about the whole trip east of the mountains, particularly his encounter with Izzy. "He's a very charming beast," Comley said. "When you hear him talk he sounds like he's in pain, but when you see him make the sound he's obviously happy. Richards is getting calls from kids all over the West Coast about the "must-see" camel in Waitsburg. "He's getting famous now," he said. "We got to get his Facebook page done. He's going national." It helps that his hulksome profile can be seen from a satellite (so to speak), as though a recent spate of magazine articles, syndicated newspaper travel pieces and Cycle Oregon wasn't enough to put Waitsburg on the map.

When you zoom in on the town using Google Earth, you can click on a photo icon at 7th Street (Izzy's old digs) and bring up a picture of Izzy kushed (seated) beside a red pickup truck. The popular animal has had ink devoted to him in Seattle and Tacoma newspapers. A California writer wants to include him in a book about the friendli­ness of his species.

On top of all that and be­fitting his growing fame, Izzy moved homes in June and is now in Carol Weir's pasture on Highway 12, a strategic high-traffic, high-visibility venue at the entrance of town from Walla Walla that would make any marketing depart­ment gleeful. Richards' only concern about the move is the likelihood of some head-turning driver getting into a wreck. When Richards happens to be out there with Izzy when camera-happy travelers pull over, he always gets the same question. "They want to know why there's a camel in Waits­burg," he said, to which Rich­ards always answers with an equally obvious question: "Why doesn't your town have a camel? Everyone should have one."

In Clarkston, where Izzy appears in the Thursday Live After Five farmers-style market during the warmer months, families almost take the visiting dromedary for granted, calling ahead to make sure their favorite des­ert dweller will be on hand when they show up with the kids. It's unclear if Whinnie will develop the same star power. If she does, it's not because she's trying to get his to rub off on her.

At nine, she might be ac­cused of robbing the cradle buddying up to him. So she took the high road after they first met - he the three-year-old puppy, she the allusive grand dame. "He wanted to play with her ears, and she wouldn't have any of it," Richards said. "It took two minutes for her to be done with him." But that was a month ago. Now, they happily form a herd with the horses and can be caught smooching even before an indiscrete camera.

After all, appearances aside, the two have a lot in common.

"They're both desert ani­mals and beasts of burden," Richards said. Izzy is an Arabian desert camel, while Whinnie's spe­cies was bred small to pull ore cars through mining tun­nels. Think Mexico or Chile, but really all over. "Now they have a life of luxury which they still complain about," Richards laughs.