the circle of life.

That is a dramatic blog title, I know.

But I am having a bit of a dramatic, life-shake-up type moment here!

One week from today is my last day in the Children’s Zoo. 

It’s not all sad because I am so, so lucky to be starting a new job in the Carnivore Unit! On my refrigerator right now, I have a brand new Keeper/Carnivore name tag just waiting for me to start. 

When I began volunteering at the Zoo in 2002, I was beyond delighted to receive my first, official (though volunteer) Zoo name tag. It made me feel, well, legit. I would have never even dared to dream that eleven years later I would get to wear one saying Keeper/Carnivore below my name, but wow, that is actually going to happen. 

I am truly excited to be working with some of my favorite species and embarking on a new Zoo adventure. 

But it wouldn’t be a life changer if it weren’t a little bittersweet, no?

Joni Mitchell said it right. You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone. In these last days at the Children’s Zoo I can’t help but look around and see all of the beautiful creatures I’ve had the pleasure of caring for in the last few years. 

And you know what? I didn’t realize how much I’d fallen in love. 

There’s Petals and Blossom, the wooly sheep that always want their butts scratched. And Miller the short-tailed opossum who wraps his tiny tail around my finger. I will miss seeing the show rats hop back into their nest and Bear the kinkajou lap up some honey. Joe the armadillo will always hold a special place in my heart and who can forget the charms of Freeman and Andrus, the odd couple alpacas? 

Most of all, there is Gilbert the macaw, my best buddy and Hannah the sweet Zoo dog who I hate to leave, even at the end of a normal work day. 

And, of course, my girl, Bubbles, who has brought me so much joy this past year through sharing her story and by just being her sassy, awesome self. 

I love all of the Children’s Zoo animals in some way and though I know I will learn to love the carnivores I will be caring for, I can’t help but feel a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone. 

I guess it’s just the circle of life for a zookeeper. 

A little bit bitter and a little bit sweet. 

They say the only constant is change, right?

So, onward we go to the next adventure!

Yesterday I Met The Cat in the Hat!

Yay!

Never thought I’d get to meet The Cat in the Hat! But yesterday, that dream became a reality. 

The Cat, himself, made an appearance during my reading at Twillman Elementary School for NEA’s Read Across America Day. 

And let me just say, the students were happy and excited to meet Jake the Snake (of course!) but when that giant Cat strode through the library door, they simply went wild! It was a lot of fun.

After reading Bubbles and introducing the kids to Jake, I actually read Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat to the actual Cat in the Hat! Now what do you think about that?! (Ok, I’m done.)

Today would have been Dr. Seuss’ 109th birthday. I’m sure he would have been so happy to see all of the wonderful Twillman students reading and celebrating!

In other news, I took a (long) day trip on Thursday to Joplin, Missouri to do a little research for a (potential) new book! It was quite the experience. 

Not to mention, I got to meet the famous KIX 102.5 DJ Kurt Michaels (aka my good friend, Kurt, who has an awesome new radio job in Joplin).

All in all it was a productive and exciting weekend.

And, yes, I know it wasn’t really the weekend. Sorry. 

Check out my pic with The Cat below!

a tale of three chickens.

You can’t work for a Zoo for long without realizing that animals are smart. 

They sense things we never realize, can learn quickly and often show us their intelligence in unexpected ways. 

Everyone knows about the intelligence of apes, parrots, canines and big cats. 

But what about chickens? 

Chickens?! You may say. What about chickens? Chickens aren’t smart, they’re just, well, chickens. 

The main white meat. The root of many jokes (“Guess what? Chicken butt!” You know you’ve said it.) The squawking, strutting, dummy-headed birdbrains of the barnyard, right?

Wrong, my friends, wrong. 

I have seen many examples of chicken intelligence at the Zoo, starting, of course, with the ability of our Show Chickens to quickly learn and flawlessly perform their routines. 

But this tale really takes the cake.

A little backstory: Our Children’s Zoo chickens often lay eggs on a daily basis. We take these free-range chicken eggs and use them to feed to our other animals. Many of our animals eat scrambled and hard boiled egg and, hey, what better place to get them then right here in our own Zoo barnyard. We know exactly what those chickens are eating, ya’ll! The chickens usually like a soft place to lay their eggs and so generally prefer to lay them on the hay bales in our tack room. 

The other day I was heading over to our New Barn to feed the burros and our gal, Bubbles the Dwarf Zebu. As I stood at the gate trying to clumsily unlock the lock with my cold, gloved fingers, three chickens gathered around me and started pecking me on the leg. 

This is odd CZ-chicken behavior. Our chickens are usually sweet, old gals, good at strutting around looking for grubs and popcorn. They do not (usually) tend to gang up on and attack their keepers!

“Hey!” I shouted. “Stop that! Get away from me!" 

I was laughing too, because it was just so weird.

The three chickens followed at my heels as I entered the barnyard and continued to squawk at me, pecking my ankles. 

"What are you guys doing?!” I laughed, trying to walk with my own personal mini-flock surrounding me.

As I reached the door to the tack room where the burro/zebu food is kept the chickens quieted down and just stared at me.

And then it hit me.

They wanted in. These chickens wanted to get into the locked tack room so that they could lay their eggs. They saw me, knew that I could open the tack door and thought that they would alert me to the urgency of their quest. 

Sure enough, I opened the door and all three girls sauntered in, settled themselves in the hay and laid three, beautiful, brown eggs. 

Amongst all of the visitors (ok, well, it’s winter, so all five of the visitors at the CZ that day) those chickens picked me out as one of their keepers with the ability to let them into that room so that they could lay their eggs.

If that’s not smart, I don’t know what is. 

Guess what turns out ain’t so plain?

Chicken brain. 

(ok, I know that was bad.)

The End.