When you think "emotional support animal," what do you picture?
A Chihuahua? A cute teacup Poodle you can carry around in your pocket?
Well, this emotional support pet isn't like the others...
Joie Henney finds comfort in Wally – his emotional support alligator.
Joie adopted Wally in 2016, and is currently undergoing cancer treatments.
Recently, his scaly friend Wally made a public splash at a Philadelphia park. (You thought I was going to say Florida, didn't you?)
On August 26, park-goers were shocked to see a young girl holding a leash, casually walking through the water park, with an alligator at the end of it.
The seven-year-old reptile TikTok star (with over 75,000 followers) may have scared some folks at first sight, but he quickly won them over with pets and hugs.
Wally spent his afternoon cooling down in the park's water fountains while attracting lots of attention.
"We were just walking by LOVE Park and saw this kid playing with an alligator in the fountain," Britt Miller told the Philly Voice. "Of course, there was a ton of people around taking pictures. The girl (who had the alligator) seemed to be with her family, who were sitting off to the side. They were super friendly. People were picking up the alligator, petting it, all sorts of stuff."
@brimil / Twitter@brimil / Twitter
Wally's adorable demeanor doesn't only help his owner Joie, but he's also been bringing people joy across the country!
Wally was once up for "America's Favorite Pet" and has been featured in some pretty popular outlets and magazines. He's been all over, the Washington Post, New York Post, and People, just to name a few.
Joie, an obvious reptile enthusiast, started a GoFundMe to help cover the cost of caring for Wally and his other critters while battling cancer and is keeping up up-to-date on Wally's latest adventure through social media.
I encourage you all to take a look at some of his videos. This is probably the cutest and sweetest living dinosaur you'll ever see!
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