'It's pretty remarkable': All 100 pets rescued from Daytona Beach assisted-living home

After facing eviction this week from a Daytona Beach assisted-living center, roughly 100 pets ranging from dozens of cats and exotic birds to a rare 250-pound tortoise are settling into new homes after a grassroots rescue effort that stretched throughout the state.

“We were so inundated with messages that I lost track,” said Rebecca Lynch, president of the DeLand-based nonprofit Poodle and Pooch Rescue, who has spent the past week helping the owners of the now-closed Compassion In Healthcare pet-friendly assisted-living home in Daytona Beach find homes for the animal menagerie ahead of a Wednesday eviction deadline.

“It was overwhelming,” Lynch said Thursday about the successful effort to find new homes for a roster of animals that included 75 cats, 15 birds, four dogs, a chinchilla and the mammoth African sulcata tortoise named Jumanji.

“Less than a week ago, there were over 100 animals and yesterday they were all cleared out of there,” she said. “It’s pretty remarkable what happened in just less than a week’s time.”

The frantic animal rescue unfolded as home’s owners, Shoshannah Tempest, 72, and her business partner Mike Lawler faced foreclosure of the 28-bed facility at 700 Beville Road that served for decades as a pet-friendly assisted living option for seniors.

Tempest on Thursday said that she has been staying with friends temporarily as she considers long-term options.

"I just got an offer for a place in Baker County, kind of west of Jacksonville," she said. "They’ve got 3-1/2 acres for cats and they are looking for a live-in couple to help as caretakers. They have over 80 cats. That's right up my alley, so we’re going to check that out."

She said she's astounded by the outpouring of concern for her pets.

"I've been getting calls from all over the country."

Evicted pets now in new homes from Gainesville to South Florida

As for the animals, they are now scattered among rescue operations and private homes from South Florida to Gainesville, Lynch said.

A DeLand resident adopted the chinchilla, she said.

Although the foster-based Poodle and Pooch rescue ordinarily deals strictly in canines, Lynch found homes for three cats. An additional 30 cats were rescued by the Halifax Humane Society, said Christina Sutherin, the shelter’s chief operations officer.

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All the felines  —  ages six weeks to 23 years old  —  are in fine shape, although a bit rattled by the recent events, Sutherin said.

“They look really well cared for as far as weight and general health,” she said. “They all got their first round of vaccinations and initial exams yesterday, and they are now available for what we call deferred adoption. That means they’re not ready to go home right now, but if somebody wanted to come and meet them, we can go ahead and pre-adopt at this point.

“They did a very good job of socializing and caring for them at the home.”

Palm Beach Parrot & Bird Rescue in the South Florida rural suburbs of Jupiter offered new homes for eight of the exotic birds, including Captain, a 24-year-old blue-and-yellow macaw with an 80-word vocabulary and a gift for mimicking cats, dogs and human voices.

There, owner Susan Oddo also was impressed with the excellent health of the birds.

“They are all in fantastic condition and all friendly, which is unheard of,” she said. “They clearly were very well-loved and very well cared for, even as conditions at the property deteriorated. That’s a testament to the owners. They are amazing, sweet animals and we will find good homes for them.”

A forever home for Jumanji the tortoise

Jumanji, the 250-pound tortoise, is now a resident at Florida’s Wildest Animal Rescue, a 40-acre spread in Interlachen, west of Palatka, where he’s noshing on watermelon and awaiting construction of a custom 2,300-square foot permanent enclosure.

In Daytona Beach, the rescue’s owners, Gabby Scampone and Chris Gillette, lured Jumanji out of his hiding place in the overgrown yard at the assisted-living home with tempting hibiscus flowers and loaded him into the back of their Honda Civic hatchback for the two-hour return to Putnam County.

“He took up the entire trunk,” Scampone said. “He’s an impressive animal. He’s definitely one of the biggest ones we’ve ever seen. He might be a Sudanese giant, which is a sub-species from a different region where they grow larger. He’s a really friendly, healthy animal.”

While many of the displaced pets are in transition, Jumanji already has found his forever home, Scampone said.

“He’s 20 years old and he’s going to live with us forever,” she said, “for the next 50 or 60 years.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Pets facing eviction in Daytona Beach home find new homes statewide