Most people would be lucky to have 90 others show up to their birthday party, but Freddy the Turtle is not most people.
In fact SA国际影视传媒� as his name suggests SA国际影视传媒� he is not a person at all.
Freddy has been living in an aquarium in Fort Smith's Mary Kaeser Library for 30 years. On the afternoon of July 17, nearly 100 members from the community of about 2,500 residents showed up to celebrate his 35th birthday.
"It was great," said library manager Sam Stokell, who organized the birthday bash with her staff. "It was busy all afternoon."
Freddy was previously believed to be a red-eared slider, but is now thought to be a yellow-bellowed slider, on account of the fact that he does not have the former species' trademark red ears.
His birthday celebration featured cupcake decorating, a photo booth where people could take pictures with shelled celebrity, crafts, and a "pin the hat on Freddy" game SA国际影视传媒� similar to pin the tail on the donkey.
Most of the attendees were children and their caretakers. However, several adults came by to visit Freddy earlier in the afternoon, some of whom remember meeting him as children.
"Before the party started, there were more adults coming in just to check him out," Stokell said. "I think they were trying to avoid the chaos that was going to happen later."
After such a successful birthday party, there is little question as to how much people in Fort Smith care about Freddy.
According to Stokell, who spends as much time with the turtle as anyone, the feeling is mutual.
"I don't know what it is, but people just love Freddy and he loves them back," she said. "Anytime there's someone near his aquarium, he will just swim right up to the glass, and if you put your finger on the glass, he will follow it.
"We have one young family, they have a 3-year-old boy, and he actually plays tag with Freddy," she added, laughing. "So the little boy will run to one side of the aquarium and Freddy will follow him, then he'll go to the other side and Freddy will follow him.
"When this family comes, anytime they're in the rec centre, they will come upstairs to say hello to Freddy. They'll go do whatever they're doing, and then they'll come back and say goodbye to Freddy. All the kids in the daycare and the summer camp come and say hi to him. I joke that he's the number one attraction at the library."
While library staff are not 100 per cent sure of Freddy's species, yellow-bellied sliders typically live around 40 years in captivity. It remains to be seen how many more birthdays Freddy will have, but Stokell is considering having another celebration of the town's favourite reptile next year.
"Last year we did a really small party for him," she said. "This year was a lot bigger, mainly just because we wanted to do it bigger. As part of our summer reading program, we do a weekly activity and we thought this would be a really fun one.
"We might do it again next year just because it's so popular."
