Back to School

For us, the first day of school isn't about new backpacks, cool new clothes or shoes, folders, pencils, well, ya know. Our first day of school is about, what wild animal teachers will travel with us? What will they need? And how will they travel, will they like to go to school? How will they want us to make it fun for them? Our first day back was fun, seeing old buddies and new ones too! One of the things that I am responsible to do is bring the animals into and out of the school and keep the animals happy and comfortable. Liz (our baby baboon) and I were coming into Aboite Elementary our first day and there were some ladies in the hallway. Liz seemed ok about it, they all thought that she was cute, she is and she knows it. One of the ladies asked "Do you train them?" I guess she meant the animals or Liz or I dont know, all I could say is that they train us, and they do. Larry the animal guy has done this job 30 years and he is a crazy guy. Me I have only helped him for 13 years, this year will be 14 and I am a rookie compared to him. When I started helping Larry our wild animal teachers were seasoned pros..Chuck our 4 year old mountain lion, Leon the amazing 6 year old "tame" badger and of course Dolly the hamydras baboon, and she was an adult. She had already met Oprah and Matt Lauer. Now remember I was a barber and to become a barber you attend college-classes, tests, instruction and hands on training. The only training I received was the first day-first school was the Animal Guy says "When I finish talking about the lizards tail, you come out and grab that badger, he will hiss and growl at you but just grab him anyway". And out of the truck Larry went and there I sat , not a clue! So I turn around to these amazing teaching pros and ask, "OK guys show me what to do" and they did. I have been receiving lessons from them every day and I am still learning. So wish me well I have two new animal teachers this year. The first animal teachers that I worked with have passed now but I will always be grateful for the training that I received from them, without it I would still have no clue or maybe the human animals that I met at the barber shop helped to get me used to the real wild ones.....animals that is.