The Auburn interns were asked to find a camel — yes, a camel — to show up to a baseball game in east Alabama.

But, well, what exactly are you supposed to type into Google to find a camel?

“Camels near me,” Emily Adams, Auburn’s associate director of fan experience, said with a laugh.

And yes, she’s serious. They found Loretta.

The idea was silly. Auburn had a Wednesday afternoon baseball game against Air Force. Wednesday. The middle of the week. Hump Day. Getting over the hump of the week. Get it now?

It’s spring break in Auburn this week and as if $2 hot dogs weren’t enough of a selling point for those still in town, Adams and her staff wanted to bring a camel and its hump to Plainsman Park? Sure.

So Loretta graced the concourse of Plainsman Park right inside the main gate, fenced in to greet those entering the ballpark running over to see her for themselves or doing double takes as if to say, ‘Wait, why’s there a camel here?’

Adams has actually done this before. She and Auburn deputy athletic director Rhett Hobart worked together at Wake Forest before reuniting at Auburn. They brought a camel to a Wednesday baseball game in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hobart worked at his alma mater, Mississippi State, before coming to Auburn and shortly after Hobart arrived in Auburn in 2023, a camel arrived at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville.

The idea for Auburn’s edition was hatched in November when Adams first saw a copy of Auburn’s baseball schedule. All she wanted to see if if Auburn had a Wednesday game. That box was checked.

“I wanted to do things that haven’t been done at Auburn before,” Adams said. “While other ballparks have brought camels, it’s never happened here.”

Okay but still, where did the camel come from? This is Auburn, after all. It’s not exactly prime camel country. Where does a camel live around here, anyway?

Turns out, there is a farm with a camel with a local Auburn 36830 zip code. Just a few yards south of Interstate 85 near Choctafaula Creek is Choctafaula LLC. A self-proclaimed “agricultural tourism destination”, Choctafaula includes a 300-acre farm with a guided safari tour with several hundred animals on site including giraffes, zebras, African crested porcupines and, of course, camels.

One problem: Choctafaula is temporarily closed. It says so on Google. Choctafaula’s website thanks visitors for the 2023 season but does not state a reopening date in 2024.

“Thankfully, someone happened to be checking their emails and their voicemails over the holidays and got back to us,” Adams said. “Trying to find a camel in Alabama was proving to be quite a difficult task.”

Adams said Choctafaula got back to Auburn two days before the deadline to submit a payment to another further away and more expensive farm.

“It was going to be a pretty pricey experience to provide to our fans,” Adams said. “We were going to it nonetheless.”

Or at least until Choctafaula responded and saved Auburn the cost of paying for travel with the camel from out of state.

How much does renting a camel cost? It’s more than one would think, Adams said, but didn’t give a number. She did say it would be a whole lot of $2 hot dogs.

So as Auburn took Loretta out to the ballgame on Wednesday, she took pictures with baseball players, softball players and fans. By the first inning, she was taking a nap.

And the smell, Adams said, wasn’t too bad.

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]