About 30 stuffed animals sit in crates at a petting zoo down a driveway on the first night of 37th Street Lights. The annual holiday tradition features over-the-top decorations and quirky displays that capture Austin’s weirdness.
A panda, a snake and a turtle wait for new owners under a tent with green string lights. Price tags attached to the animals don’t have dollar amounts. Instead, they outline a task.
“People are basically gonna be able to purchase a stuffed animal, but not with money,” says Wendy Mitchell, the founder and chief operating surgeon of the Stuffed Animal Rescue Foundation, an organization that repairs injured stuffies. “If you take the stuffed animal, you have to do the task associated with it.”
Ila is rescuing a dolphin in exchange for drawing a picture of a cloud. Nina gets to keep a pink crocodile if she draws what she imagines her Amazon driver had for breakfast. (Eggs and bacon.) To take home an octopus, Gus will be asking a veteran where they were stationed when they first enlisted…