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Away in the Mangers, The Business Is Booming
Bob Johnson, co-owner of Leesburg Animal Park, feeds Chewey and other animals at his home in Great Falls.
(By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)
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The chosen were led to a massive green trailer attached to a truck. Chewey, unfazed, stepped off the slushy gravel drive and took a couple of long strides to the front of the rig. A gate closed behind him, and his cast mates hopped into the back half. A baby pygmy goat rode in the cab with Bob Johnson. "He's been the biggest hit," Shirley Johnson said.
But nativity organizers say that although the manger standards -- sheep, donkeys, goats and calves -- are the crucial supporting actors to the holy family, it's the camels, with their desert mystique, who are the stars.
Naturally, the more exotic animals demand stiffer fees. A typical nativity crew goes for $450 an hour at Leesburg Animal Park, though pricing is done case by case. Chewey costs about $500 an hour.
At Centreville Baptist, Chewey gets VIP treatment. One year, the camel turned up his snout at the church's water. Now Chewey is offered a cup of iced hot chocolate, which he slurped the other night out of a pan, brown liquid dripping from his downy chin.
Like a celebrity on the red carpet, Chewey stood behind a rail, and fans -- most of them hoisted by their parents -- reached tiny hands over to touch his toffee-colored curls, little ears and fuzzy lips. Minivans passed. Camera bulbs flashed.
Bob Johnson, wearing an embroidered robe provided by the church, fielded questions about Chewey's spitting and kicking habits (rare, he says). Exclamations sailed through the night air.
"That camel is so soft!" said April Fultz, 43, who came with her husband and children.
"Big!" pronounced Laurie Fultz, 9.
After the first few cars, Bob Johnson, apparently deciding Chewey's cloak did not quite do him justice, plucked a long string of silver beads from among the velvety fabrics and shiny jewels in the Magi tent. He laced it through the camel's red harness, leaving long loops to hang below and sparkle in the light of a nearby tiki torch.
Chewey, in his satin and jewels, dazzled. A moment later, the star folded his legs beneath himself, sat and chewed some hay.
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