Bear Necessaties

When Larry does his radio show It is kind of my place to take up the slack and do the daily chores which are usually shared tasks. Sound fun?, it is most of the time except in winter - the watering chore! Now you have to remember I am all of 4' 11" and a 5 gallon bucket is almost half my height and each animal can drink at least a couple of gallons at a time - specially Buck and Faith the bears. And when they want water they will let you know - the metal water tank becomes their own bell so to speak. They clang it around to remind us to get to work and yesterday the tank ended on its side. Now I have to say when I am alone I don't enter the bear house, you kind of want somebody around for backup. They are big black bears and I am still the mama but why push it. We respect each other...lets say that! So I am using my handy broken rake handle to maneuver the tank next to the door and get it upright, all the while I am asking help from Buck or Faith. About the time we got the tank up Larry shows up and finishes the task..and we all laughed..great timing. This morning Larry came in and said "You should see what your bears have done", I'm like "what?". Around here you never know what might happen but look what the bears did (see picture)..they were ready for their drink!

Special Christmas Tradition

Did you have a great holiday, make it through OK? Did you love all your presents? The critters around here enjoy the holiday special treats. And for Lizzy the baby baboon and Gus the bobcat it was their first! Liz was fun to watch with wrapping paper and of course she loved the packages just as much as the toys! Sound familiar? They think holidays are great! One of my favorite gifts this year is the orchid blooming and even after all the bumps this year it did not disappoint. Blooms are still popping out and two or three more to come. That orchid ends the year blooming and on into the new year, too cool! I hope that your special presents are like mine still blooming and still making you smile.

Tough Lil Orchid

I have an orchid that I bought to give away as a present ...that was 4 or 5 years ago and I acquired a few more now. I know nothing of orchids, or what they need to grow, put it in a south window, water and every year around Christmas this one always blooms white. This year with Gus the bobcat the orchid has taken some bumps, knocked over at least three times, and Blake the wolf, not to be outdone totally creamed it, took replanting, bent and broken leaves, looked grim.I did not think it would bloom this year but tonight I noticed a green bump of a bud getting ready to welcome Christmas time. It is orchid lesson 101- bloom even if you take some bumps and replanting! Those blooms are worth waiting for.

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!!