For the last three years, Kim Loan’s daily routine has always included a visit to April 30 Park in downtown Ho Chi Minh City early in the morning, bringing with her bags brimming with fruits and seeds to feed the wildlife creatures with whom she has developed a special bond.

Loan, a 70-year-old woman from Binh Thanh District in Ho Chi Minh City, showed up at the park on her motorbike at 6:15 am on a summer day of 2020.

At the very first sight of her, the flock of pigeons populating the park immediately dove toward Loan as a gesture of greeting.

She was quick to come over and scatter grains of unhusked rice from a plastic bag on the ground for the birds to feed on.

She then proceeded to hang bags of sliced banana and mango on the trees in the vicinity, which were to be picked up by squirrels scurrying down from the twigs above.

For the last three years, Loan has never failed to come over and feed the wild animals in the park whenever she leaves home for badminton matches with her friends.

She usually prepares one kilogram of unhusked rice for the pigeons, along with a hand of bananas refrigerated, peeled, and thinly chopped for the squirrels as they tend to “like something sweet and cool."

Loan is often called the 'fairy godmother' of wildlife in this park due to her peculiar look with hair white as snow and lips red as roses.

As she observes the animals munching food in peace, Loan’s eyes sparkle with pure joy.

Back when she first started out three years ago, Loan said she used to hang only a banana on each tree.

She has now switched to hanging a whole bag of chopped banana to save time as the squirrels often come in large numbers.

“It’s hilarious to think of the day I first offered them bananas in bags. They thought it was a trap,” Loan said.

“I had to assure them, ‘Eat away. I won’t catch you, so no need to be scared.’”

Since then, rain or shine, even on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Loan has not skipped a day of feeding her beloved animals.

She has been taking care of them as if they were her children, showing delicate affection to each of their moves, and even studying their individual habits by heart.

While watching the pigeons pecking at their grains, Loan recalled her memories being alongside critters of the park.

“Things are fine on sunny days, but I would feel pity for them if it’s raining,” she said.

“One time when I arrived after a downpour, I had hardly pulled over when they began landing near me. You see, how can I abandon them?”

Loan is not the only one who has stepped in for the unpaid job at the park.

Nguyen Van Nam from Tan Binh District shares the workload of feeding the wild animals with her.

“I was worried that the squirrels from afar would not be able to arrive for Loan’s food, so I hang some more on other trees in the park,” said Nam.

Living with a vision impairment, Nam resorts to white paint marks to discern the trees he needs to work on.

He offers the squirrels a variety of fruits from mango, dragon fruits, kiwis, and passion fruits to other sweet fruits every day.

The squirrels are capable of feeding themselves with seeds of hollong trees found in the park.

Loan and Nam are not isolated cases in Ho Chi Minh City. The place sees plenty of others who share the love for creatures of nature, without the urge to capture them for the sake of human entertainment.

They are seen as family, and an indispensable part of the city.

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