Get Up Close with Exotic Pets at Stow’s Animal Jungle Pet Shop

As an adolescent growing up in Streetsboro in the 1980s, Patricia Toshok used to walk to the site of a nearby zoo park, which had closed. She would envision her own version.

“I’d go there and sit, and I would just daydream about Pat’s Pet Palace,” recalls Toshok, who used to help at her uncle’s Northfield pet shop as a kid and a teen. “I always wanted to do a zoo-type thing.”

It took several years, but in 2017, Toshok opened Animal Jungle Pet Shop. It had different locations but is now only in Stow. Next door to her largely exotic pet shop, find an animal education center, which she is set to open in April. It builds on the education Animal Jungle already offers to its customers, who range from regional to out of state. The center is slated to host over 80 animal enclosures featuring mostly exotic animals like bearded dragons, giant marine toads, white tree frogs, olive pythons, boa snakes, an albino Burmese snake and others. Also find prairie dogs, African porcupines, micro squirrels, a three-banded armadillo and more. Plus, take in scorpions, beetles, geckos, tarantulas, a frilled dragon, European legless lizards, blue-tongued skinks and more.

Encounter special exhibits such as a tortoise island with Sulcata tortoises and red-footed tortoises, as well as a chinchilla island. The Lizard Lounge sitting area is set to host birthday parties with animal shows and special events like movie nights, turning it into a community space.

Staffers are planning to be on hand to give tours and tell visitors about the animals’ upkeep, behavior and background and to help people interact with the animals.

“People that want to get up close to reptiles and handle them — this is an opportunity to do that,” says Toshok, whose daughter, Adria, is the manager of Animal Jungle.

The center gives creatures from the pet store more spacious, permanent enclosures. Resident animals include Paul, an Asian water monitor lizard, and Alan, a black-throated monitor lizard, who are both 6 feet long and grow up to 8 feet long. They’re getting 16-foot enclosures with running water, where they can swim. Also find Jolene, a 3- to 4-foot Argus monitor lizard. Staffers plan to take them out often, and guests can touch them or even feed them.

“We love all these animals. They’re very important to us,” says Toshok. “All these animals are going to live out their lives at this facility. It’s such a cool environment.”

Look out for several social, curious tegu lizards, which enjoy sitting on heated mats.

“They will walk up to you, and they want to be picked up. They’ll lay on your feet,” Toshok says. “I’ve got a couple of them at home, and when they’re out, they lay up on my couch.”

Toshok wants the center to raise awareness about reptiles and hopes to alleviate any apprehension people may have.

“I’ve raised some of these animals right from the egg or as hatchlings. It is amazing. I’ve witnessed the intelligence of some of these animals,” she says. “I’ve had to put two different locks on my Asian water monitor’s door because he watches and he learns how to open locks. I want people to see how smart these creatures are.”

She says her Animal Jungle customers are people from all walks of life, including doctors and lawyers who have huge reptile collections. Anyone can find excitement in the world of reptiles.

“People get obsessed with reptiles. Once people realize how rewarding they are and how easy they are, people really get into it,” Toshosk says. “That’s why I’m opening this to the public. I want people to have the passion and love for reptiles and open their minds to something different.”