A Sloth Rescue

Some of you have already seen the post on facebook or instagram about my rescue of the sloth from the street.

Today I would like to tell you how everything happened.

It was a normal Thursday noon and after lunch at the office a colleague suggested to buy ice cream. Our office is located in a free trade zone, a little off the beaten track, surrounded by nature and forest and is situated in the most remote part of the free trade zone, behind a small internal airport. So we drove all together in a car to the ice cream store, here in the zone. Parallel to the airport on the street we suddenly saw that a car had stopped on the left lane and noticed that something was lying on the ground in front of the car. I assumed that the car hit an animal and that was the reason why it stopped. As we approached the car, I saw that it was a sloth, who was still alive, trying to get from one side of the road to the other.

Without hesitation, I jumped out of the car and grabbed him from behind under his arms to take him to the other side. I was amazed that his coat was not hard and rough, but very soft. And he was not heavy at all. He was still a young animal.

Crossing the street, the sloth turned around in my arms and looked at me with a sleepy look, smacking his lips. Of course, he immediately tried to cling to me. As you surely know, the sloths have very long and very sharp claws, and he tried several times to hold on to my arms and my neck. After a while, I could not avoid it any longer, gave up, and allowed him to completely nestle up to me. Arrive at the other side, there was no way to hang him directly on a tree, since the entire side is fenced. So I searched a place where the fence was closest to a tree and hung the sloth on the fence.

As you can see in the photos, the entire ground there is red mud. So you can imagine how I must have looked like, waddling in the mud in my office outfit and high heels.

With his left arm and his two feet the sloth then grabbed the fence, but with his right arm he did not want to let me go. When I finally managed to free myself of him, he tried again and again to come back to me, as if he would not want to let me go.

Soooo cute!

So I stepped away a few meters so that he was not distracted by me anymore and watched as he slowly but surely climbed over the fence on the tree.

A happy ending!

What an experience! When I think back to it today, it seizes me and fills me with enormous joy. It is interesting how a such small act can sweeten your day…

November, 2017