I need to do it, I don’t need any interference from outside.” Even with that, it became difficult, I think I mentioned I had a real issue that came up very, very early. I think I hadn’t been there more than two or three weeks with a promise that had been made by the zoo and by the director to ship a male giraffe out to the zoo in Boston. And at the time that decision was made, we had two animals, this male plus a female, well, the female died. So we had this one male left and she said, “Well, we’re not gonna to send it out.” And I said, “Well, we’ve already committed that animal to them. They’ve made arrangements, they’ve got a female in, we’re sitting here with a single male down. He is not doing us any good at all. We have to send that animal to Boston.” And she said, “No, we’re not gonna be without your ass.” And I said, “Okay, look, I mean, you got one choice, Lucy, either we send the animal to the zoo in Boston, not because it’s something that now you don’t wanna do. It’s something that as the National Zoo, we’ve got a reputation uphold as far as commitments that we make that we have to honor, and I’m not gonna smirch my reputation because now I’m in a position that I have to make that decision too, to send that animal out.
