Marina Ferreira Dublin was upset when someone rang her doorbell on a quiet Tuesday evening in January. She’d been watching Netflix after dinner with her husband and inwardly cursing the solar salesman she was sure must be on her porch.
Instead, she found a 6-foot camel with one hump.
When she showed it to her husband, “he said, ‘There’s a fat camel outside,'” Ferreira Dublin said. “I thought, ‘What?'”
The dromedary was not genuine and not in pristine condition. Its back half was tattered and torn, and the fabric on one of its front legs was torn, exposing its wooden bones.
However, it was life-size, heavy, and definitely not what any resident of Tartesso, a proposed community of about 3,000 homes in the Buckeye Reach, would ever have expected to have in their front yard.
“I thought it was hilarious,” said Ferreira Dublin. “My husband didn’t think it was funny. He thought it was a bit creepy and weird.”
Perplexed, she turned to Tartesso Chat, a private Facebook group for her community. Typically, residents use the site as they would any other quiet suburb, with buy and sell items, announcements about small businesses, and complaints about the occasional speedy driver or unruly teenager.
But Ferreira Dublin’s post the night before Hump Day got the community excited.
The camel, nicknamed ‘Kami’ in around 280 comments that followed Ferreira Dublin’s post, was immediately knighted by residents in the comments as the community’s new mascot.
He also became the subject of many jokes.
“This is what happens when you order an Uber in the desert,” wrote commentator Christopher Dublin, husband of Ferreira Dublin.
Where did the camel come from and where did it go?
Commentators were quick to note that someone had rescued the camel during the day of community garbage collection. A group member previously wrote that it lived in her mother-in-law’s backyard where it was used as a Christmas decoration. And a homeowner with surveillance cameras shared video of a silver pickup truck prowling the neighborhood streets, with Kami standing upright in the back of the vehicle.
Ferreira Dublin eventually found out that one of Dublin’s friends in the community was the culprit. He dropped the camel in their garden as a prank, took a few selfies with it, then rang the doorbell and disappeared into the night.
But she still had a problem on her hands. The Tartesso community is governed by a homeowners’ association with strict rules on the appearance of homes.
A life-size camel is not on the list of acceptable lawn decorations, Ferreira Dublin said.
After standing outside for several hours to see if anyone intended to take her camel back, she began looking for volunteers. Eventually, one of her mother’s friends agreed to take it.
“I didn’t know what else to do with it,” said Ferreira Dublin.
Camel ignites community mascot ideas
Some residents quickly grew fond of Kami the camel.
“It was just a fun weekend gag,” said resident Christina Keech. “It brought lots of laughter and a fun evening as we tried to find the camel – to solve a camel riddle.”
They began to devise a game of tag that would move the camel from one house to another in the community. The idea was developed to bring neighborhood cheer while avoiding HOA fines for recipients of the dromedary.
But that plan was foiled when Ferreira Dublin gave it to someone outside the neighborhood. Now that he’s gone, some residents have floated the idea of getting a new Pass-Along mascot. Group suggestions range from a fake flamingo to a 12-foot skeleton.
Keech said the new mascot is still in the planning stages, calling it “a huge possibility.” But in the meantime, she said the camel incident is emblematic of the spirit of the neighborhood.
“It’s one of many things that’s happening here,” she said, pointing to her neighbors who help host a farmers’ market and holiday events. “These are not HOA funded, just very active community members who make Tartesso very special.”
And there’s still a chance that Ferriera Dublin will try to get Kami back. She is now known in the neighborhood as “the camel lady” and she said she felt bad that giving away ruined her neighbors’ fun.
Besides, she’s not sure what her mother’s friend needs it for anyway.
“I have no idea what she intends to do with it,” Ferriera Dublin said. “But I’m thinking about getting it back now.”
Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County, Pinal County and regional topics for The Arizona Republic. She doesn’t usually cover camels. Do you have a story to share? Reach her at [email protected] Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka.