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Humphrey the Camel likes root beer.
He showed the residents from Kadima Rehabilitation and Nursing in Drums just how much he likes it when his owner handed a plastic bottle with a few ounces of the sweet liquid to activities director John Williams and suggested he offer it to the animal.
Humphrey grabbed the bottle in his mouth and stretched his long neck straight up toward the sky, the better to let every last drop pour into his mouth.
“Oh, God, it’s beautiful,” resident Lois Wood said, marveling at the large creature. “I love everything about it.”
“I never saw one this close,” said June Gaynor who, along with Wood and a handful of other residents, met Humphrey outdoors in Kadima’s side yard on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s nice to see the residents smile,” said activities aide Emily Bower, who adding to the atmosphere by wearing a Moroccan outfit the camel’s owner had brought.
“They really respond to animals — animals and children, but it’s harder to get children here,” activities director John Williams said.
The camel’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, explained how well the camel’s anatomy is suited for life in the desert. He has a third eyelid and what she affectionately calls “Maybelline eyelashes” to help keep sand out of his eyes, slit-like nostrils that can contract to keep sand out of his nose during a storm, and calluses on his knees and chest that would protect him from hot sand if he were resting in a kneeling position in a desert.
One of Humphrey’s calluses is heart shaped, and is located near his heart, his owner said.
The animal, who weighs 1700 pounds and stands 7.5 feet high at his hump, is a dromedary, or one-humped camel. His two-humped relatives are called bactrians and camel humps are composed of fat, which would sustain them if they had nothing to eat.
But Humphrey has plenty of food. He enjoys hay, carrots and watermelon and can even safely consume plants that have thorns.
“See how thorny this is,” his owner said, showing the residents a little branch from a bush, which Humphrey obligingly ate.
He has lived on a farm with his owner for about eight years; she took him in when he was very young, after a friend saw that her horse was afraid of him and decided Humphrey needed a new home.
As the brief program came to an end Thursday afternoon, volunteer Jenn Planutis and resident Lois Wood held a bar to which an old-fashioned bicycle horn had been attached and offered it to Humphrey, who bit the horn, delighting Wood with a loud ah-oo-ga.
Before she returned indoors, resident Jill Palermo said she also has a special reason to remember Humphrey’s visit. “He kissed me,” she said with a smile.
