My mother, on the other hand, was a voracious reader, and I guess I developed a love of reading from her, and I love to read natural history books. As far back as I can remember, I was, you know, I could tell you how fast a cheetah could run and the difference between an African and an Asian elephant. I could do that when I was eight or nine years old. I had a first cousin who was much older than me, who was also an only child, who when I was probably about 12 or 13 years old graduated. He graduated from veterinary school and opened a little single-man practice in Columbia, and I started working for him when I was 14. I worked every weekend, every holiday, every summer for four years as what today would be called a veterinary technician. At the time, there was no such thing in terms of licensing and, you know, education. And I really wanted to follow in his footsteps.
