Three Wishes

When I visit your schools, I really love to read and check out the student's work the teachers display. Larry the animal guy thinks that all your stuff would make a great book, so creative! One class wrote about three wishes they would want, most wanted money, games and stuff and one gal said "Dr. Suess books", a girl after my own heart. That got me thinking, Larry and I would really like to show you just how amazing wild animals are, but if I had three wishes, well I would ask for more wishes! Then first I would like to show you things I know like how cool it is to watch Elizabeth the baboon use her index finger and thumb and how she hugs so tight and you feel her hands and feet grab hold of you, its something, or maybe wish you could hear the sound the bobcat makes when he is in his happy mood or even the scary one he makes when he is not happy.Or one more wish that you could see in the summer the tiger's fur looks like velvet, so smooth that the black stripes look like the ridges in corduroy. That's three or more but one wish thats more important to me would be that all the animals will always have a wild home a perfect place, a wish we can make happen together.

Teacher's Pet...NOT!!!!

School and I were never a great fit. I wasn't a bad student and I got good grades but, I was very, social, let's say. On our report cards there was a place for the teachers to make a statement or suggestion I am not sure what you call it. I still remember my first grade teacher wrote "Cheryl has a lot of friends and she likes to talk to them". Another comment that year "talks to much!", those "digs" or statements stuck with me. I don't think that she liked me and I am positive I did not like her. What lesson did she teach? Anyway, the thing is now I go to school to help Larry and his job is to talk mine is to handle our animal teachers and not talk. How about that? It is true! Students will ask why I don"t talk and our joke is that if I did talk the convocation would be two hours long! So I guess that is funny, cause my first grade teacher was wrong, I know when to talk and when to listen and learn.

Friends as Family

I think, maybe, some of the most special friends in our lives we meet in school, the ones that really know ya. They kinda become family too. I hope that you know what I mean, cause you have friends like that! Sometimes those friends can help you see your family in a different way. My mom was a pretty tough mom, she expected us to do our best, do the right thing, her way, no excuses. She was right and boy do I miss that gal. One of my old friend/family friends came for a visit and we were talking about family moms - dads and he said " He liked my mom, because every time he would see her that the look in her eyes always made him feel good about himself". He said, "She just made him feel better", and that blew me away, I had no idea . See only someone that is family can see family. In this life, I could only wish to make someone feel like that. She always welcomed friends as family, maybe we should try it!

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.