On Any Given Day

On any given day it's hard to say who is gonna give us a call and well, lets just say, we have 20 alligators. I don't like to answer the phone: I cut hair for 20 years, the phone rang all the time, and in all those years of phone calls I never did get a call saying, "This is Randy W I am now able to meet all of your rat needs!" We have rat needs! huh! See what I am saying? So, on Monday when we got a message from the Speedway Police Department about a abandoned boa constrictor, not really a strange call par for our course. Larry returned the call and found the snake had been left in a apartment. He gets a box and we head to Speedway, Indiana about an hour away. We both laughed because the apartments were the same ones that Larry lived in way, way back when I said the apartments were broken in for snake habitat, cause if Larry lived there well , you can probably imagine anyway. Long story short we were to late , the snake was dead because he had been left with no heat for a month. The owner had left a mess, Larry said the apartment was destroyed. We were both bummed another animal treated badly by humans. In hard times the animal always suffers. Larry said that the snake had good body weight but a month without heat in Indiana, no way! The apartment people had no idea that it had died because no one wanted to touch it, poor snake, even dead people are afraid. Rescuing animals really isn't what our job is but both of us hate to see animals suffer cause of humans, it makes me wonder how can you just leave something you took care of to die? Kinda sad huh? Two hour drive for nothing, guess we helped the apartment people though, plus we had a good lunch at Union Jacks...our old stomping grounds.

Feeling Better

Traveling going into different schools, well you can figure we'll catch the colds that are going around, and we did. Me - stomach, Larry the chest - nose - throat, most of the time we will man up and go, but with no voice power, that changes the deal. So we had to reschedule a day of programs and happily we rescheduled to the next week. As the boys and girls went into the gym for the show and we were bringing in boxes a young man asked "how I was feeling?'. As I looked up to reply I met the face of a beautiful young man that I could tell knew what it is to not feel very well, and not just a dumb old cold either, he knew about feeling bad , but he asked about me - man I have to say that set me back. How cool, how unselfish, how lucky I am, to be able to show our animals to such great kids! You guys rock.

Knee Socks

I met PJ in 4th grade, back when girls had to wear dresses to school and knee socks were the choice. I could never keep mine to my knees, they always slouched or fell down to my ankles but PJ's were always perfect always to her knee and even folded over perfect. I was quite impressed by that besides that she was a sweetie, shy, quiet and my best friend. BFF I guess nowadays, and wer'e still friends to this day, that is a life blessing. Helping her move a few boxes into her new home a few weeks back was kinda a old friend reunion, PJ's sister, her boyfriend (we've been friends since our teenage years) and a friend from grade school helping in the move. It was the kinda day you just couldn't help but smile seeing old friends you haven't seen in a while. PJ's new home felt like old home.

"Painting in Circles"

One of my closest friends has an annual "Boo-Fest", I love Halloween costumes ,candy, scary stuff and candy...........People dressed up is fun and I like fun. I like to paint too and last year for the "boo-fest" we were painting their place and readying for the party and in the middle of our preparation their Aunt Jean passed, out of nowhere, on a colt's game weekend. To say the least the fest was shelved, hard to have fun, real fun but we still needed to do it. When someone leaves your life it is like a hole in your life, your gut, your head, but you need to pony up- do the right stuff and the circle goes on of what was a year later and we were painting again preparing for the fest and believing in fun and candy-bittersweet but believing. This year the "Boo Fest" was fun there were cool costumes, kids, games a table full of candy! That circle can help to fill holes of sadness with new moments, fun moments, a little candy and I love a good tootsie roll. Happy Trick or Treat!!

Destination Conservation (continued)

(continued)where was I, oh.......Well the show began and for some strange reason, no not strange, maybe they feel, they know it but even the setup did not faze any of the animals. Gus, no fuss was just that beautiful, no fuss, Mr. Gus, I could not have been more proud and amazed, the animals always rise to the occasion. One gentleman in the audience took some awesome pictures of the show. His website is www.delmarvaphotos.com/nctc Check em out, he is a rockstar with a camera, I think that it was the 4th show, see if you can see how proud I am of my kids, oh and Larry too. Even when we came back to schools, Gus outshined himself again, a difficult in and out , people that did not watch our program were in the hallway and they were noisy an disrespectful of their wild animal guests. Gus he only ripped a few holes in me and the shirt that I was wearing. But he is a champ!!! He came in two more times and the hallways had no people in them. Sometimes it is frustrating when people dont get how amazing the animals are to trust us enoughn to go into a strange place, makes me realize the people in the hallway needed the lessons the animals teach most of all.The kids underswtand- lets say they get us!!! Lets start to nuture nature.

Destination Conservation

Over the weekend of October 16-18, the animal guy and his two favorite gals traveled to West Virgina...oh and I went too! Of course his two favorite gals are the two Elizabeths in his life- his mom and baby Liz the baboon. Mom Battson traveled with us for the second year, now. Mom Battson is far to smart to ride in the animal van so she and her traveling partner her cairn terrier Brightey ride comfortably in her car. For the past twelve years Larry has performed for the Open House at the National Conservation Training Center. We feel very privlidged to load ourselves and our wild animal friends and entertain and educate for the day. We have met very special people there, people that dedicate their lives to protecting our natural world - our kind of people- lets just say they get us, Im proud to call them friends. Larry's mom loves the facility too she wiuld hang out longer if she could. I think that it is the beautiful campusand we get the royal treatment. This year it rainedon the way and all day Saturday and that is the first time the weather was not so good, so some of the festivities were brought inside. That is ok it was still a cool and educational day. Nature people dont mind a little rain, that's nature. We did four programs and that made the day fly right by...great people... great day!!! www.delmarvphotos.com/nctc The start of the day I was kind of worried, I know the entrance to the stage is up a flight of stairs and busses with people turn in front of the stairs. Ive done it before but this year our 5 month old Bobcat Gus does not like busses or cars and I was hoping that he would not freak out ....I mean if he didnt like the first show, oh man, how will I make him do it three more times. I was kind of freakin..he wasnt ...just me. Well the show began and for some strange reason , no not strange- maybe the feel of it and Gus was fine....(to be continued....

Covered Bridges

Out where we live there are two ways to know that it is fall, 1# The covered bridge festival , of course centered around Indiana's best covered bridges, miles and miles of fun food and shopping. All kinds of shopping, new stuff, old stuff, homemade stuff, great stuff and did I mention food? Around the block...country block, is one of the covered bridges and on the roads to the bridges there are signs with a picture of the bridges. One time my mom was coming out to visit she noticed the signs and she didnt realize what the picture was, and she asked me when she arrived "What are those signs for garages?" She could be pretty funny,I told her and we went to check out the neighborhood bridge, fun day!!!Oh yes the #2 way at our neck of the woods is moving the big gators inside, including 7 foot Baxter , he is a big dude now. The reason we have so many gators is when people get them as pets and they become tired or afraid of 'em , they will toss them in a lake or a pond around Indiana, a death sentence for their so-called pets. The animal guy knows it is not the gators fault so we take them in and care for them. That means a building, heated, water the stuff they need. That is what we do and the gators pay us back by being valuable teachers, first lesson: WILD ANIMALS DO NOT MAKE GOOD PETS!!!!! Only thing left is to persuade them to go inside...that my friends is a seperate blog altogether....stay tuned