One day I was walking my employer’s dog in the city hall grounds. I worked Downtown Columbus and my neighbor Earl Davis, the director of the zoo saw me walking the dog. So he came home and asked Don, his son, “Do you think that kid would like to work at the zoo?” And I said, “Yes, I would, if the pay was more than $8 a week,” which is what I was making in those days. And that’s how it started. Of course, I wasn’t able to work with animals, all the keepers, the old time keepers wouldn’t let me touch an animal for quite a long time until they were sure I could do the right thing.
