My zoo career started because of my constant visitation and discussions with keepers and eventually the curator and they all encouraged me, and I think that encouragement came about to some extent, because I was willing to work. And so I became a volunteer keeper. And this was before the times of great concern about liability. So I was working in the reptile house in particular, and I worked with rattlesnakes and pythons, and what have you, I was still a teenager. And then eventually I had the good fortune to work with antelope and elephants, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, all sorts of animals in the zoo. Many monkeys. And over the years that built up and the director became aware of me and I began to get summer employment. And it kept on going.
