WA families bid a warm-hearted farewell to the cold-blooded creatures at the Reptile Zoo

They’re slithery, scaly — and soon they'll be gone for good.

The Reptile Zoo in Monroe is set to close this fall, after nearly 30 years of teaching kids about exotic animals. Now, families are hurrying in to say goodbye to their favorite friends.

On a recent muggy afternoon in Monroe, Chelsea Moralez reached into a wooden pen to push a lumpy tortoise over that had rolled onto its back.

“He keeps trying to escape,” the 8 year old yelled excitedly, almost falling into the pen with the tortoises as she put it back on all fours.

This is meet-and-greet time inside the Reptile Zoo. Moralez and other kids are packed into the narrow hallways, pressing their faces up to the glass tanks.

Staring back at them: a tub full of crocodiles, a black mamba snake, and a turquoise blue iguana.

A group huddled around one pen where Isaac Peterson was showing off a large Burmese python.

The snake is nearly 10 feet long, and the kids squeal when they pet it.

“He’s cool with it, just be gentle,” Peterson said to the crowd. “And remember to sanitize your hands when you go inside and outside.”

Over the past week, Peterson has barely been able to keep up with visitor questions and gift shop purchases since he announced online that he’ll be closing the zoo this fall. The 7,000-square-foot place is too expensive to run, he said.

"The zoo could have shut down multiple times even before I took over in 2012," he said, "because it's just a financial black hole, you know?"

Peterson has been around these snakes and crocs his entire life. His dad, Scott, is The Reptile Man.

Since the mid 1990s, the Reptile Man has traveled around western Washington, showing off his rare animals. If you went to elementary school around here in the past thirty years, he probably came to your school.

“He's done 25,000 shows over the last 35 years,” Peterson said. “So, I mean, he's performed for probably over 2 million people.”

This spot, on the side of Highway 2 in Monroe, is home to over 130 different reptiles. For decades, it’s been the only place around where kids could watch an albino alligator swim, pick up a boa constrictor, and pet giant tortoises.

Many of the animals are endangered, venomous, and not found anywhere near Washington.

Now, families are packing into the zoo to see the reptiles for the last time.

Chelsea Moralez, the 8-year-old tortoise rescuer, comes here a lot with her mom. She knows every animal's name. Two of her favorites are a pair of turtles on the other side of the building.

"Lily and Timmy," Moralez said. “I mean Tim."

Moralez said visitors have to check out the two headed turtle, Pete and Repete.

"Plus, you also need to see Marcus," she said, "which is actually older than my mom."

Marcus, the alligator snapping turtle, was born in 1970. Parents visiting the Reptile Zoo on this muggy day said they remember meeting some of these same animals decades ago.

"We'll really miss all the animals,” said Chelsea’s mom, Stephanie Moralez. "We've been watching the Reptile Man, even when I was younger."

She remembered when Scott performed a show at her library when she was a kid.

"You'd get to put the alligator on your head," she recalled. "And other reptiles, you'd get to hold and touch."

Chelsea and Stephanie Moralez aren’t saying goodbye to their reptile friends quite yet. They want to come back again before the zoo closes for good Oct. 18.

"I’m sad," Chelsea said. "I hope that they make a new one, because I'm gonna miss all the animals — especially Pete and Repete and Marcus."

It's unclear where the dozens of animals will go next. Many need warm temperatures and pools of water. Zoo owner Isaac Peterson said he's already talking to interested buyers. He expected that most will likely be sold out-of-state.

But he’d love to keep the dozens of animals he was raised with.

"I'm so attached to them. If I had all the money, I’d have no problem keeping this place going,” he said. "If you don't have the bug for the animals, you're not going to stick around. Schedule's not that great. Money's not that great. That's what has kept me around."