Ridgefield class adopts unusual, “creepy” classroom pet

Ridgefield — Ridgefield teacher Annie Pintler saw a post on Facebook from someone with an axolotl they could no longer care for. Pintler adopted him, thinking he could make for an unusual classroom pet for her Sunset Ridge Intermediate School fifth-graders. “I knew I could build a whole curriculum around him,” Pintler said in a release from the district. “What are axolotls? What do they like to eat?” As students learned while researching the animal during the first week of class, axolotls are endangered salamanders native to Mexico. They eat worms, insects and small fish. The class originally planned to name him Creepy Buddy, but after doing more research, that changed to Creepy Buddy Aztec. “The word axolotl comes from the Aztecs,” fifth-grader Aiden Jensen said in the same release.