In 2011, Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, a retired bricklayer and part-time fisherman found it when it washed up on a beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, starving and covered in oil. He decided to take it home and nurse it back to health. He later named it Dindim.
Dindim was released back into the wild after getting fully fit and Joao didn’t expect to see it ever again. But few months later, Dindim returned to the beach and followed Joao home. According to Globo TV, Dindim spends 8 months with Joao and the rest of the year breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile – 5,000 miles away.
In an interview with Globo TV, Joao said: “I love the penguin like he’s my own child and I believe the penguin lovesme.”No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.”He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February, and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.”…. In fact, I’m willing all my properties to Dindim….
