Well, I, I, I spent time with, with Dr. Beaver at the hospital again, around the time that I, that I started. So by the time, by the time I was full-time in the children’s zoo, Dr. Beaver was established as the full-time vet at the zoo. And the, the… Read More
And at the time were you thinking about other opportunities in the zoo world as you were doing this keeper job?… Read More
And so when I got into vet school and had my first introduction to house cats, it was like, oh yeah, it’s just like a baby leopard. Yeah, I, I, I get that behavior that’s just like a, just like a baby tiger. So I, my exposure was kind of… Read More
I love it. That was definitely, you know, when you’re, when you’re looking to get into vet school, you want a backup plan because not everybody that applies gets in. And so, so yeah, along those, you know, in those, my first couple of years of college, you know, that… Read More
Or was this something you thought could be the rest of my life?… Read More
Starting out, it was essentially animal husbandry, cleaning cages we had, and at, at the time, we, we knew more about, we knew less about contracepting big cats than, than we did about, you know, having them in a situation where, where you could get breeding. And so a lot… Read More
What was your responsibilities as an animal keeper? Starting out?… Read More
A 1971. And it was just applying for it?… Read More
Yes. When about what year did you become an animal keeper?… Read More
Well, I had applied for it the year before and they, it was, it didn’t, at the time, it didn’t require any sort of degree. As I say, it was more, more like what we have seasonal employees for here at Brookfield. So they, their qualification was, they wanted to… Read More
Well, I was in high school, I needed money to go on dates to buy gas for the car, volunteer job, wasn’t gonna do it. And, and I also was, you know, from my experience going to the zoo, I was really interested in, in working as a, working as… Read More
And that’s how you showed that you were a good employee and were dedicated, had a good work ethic. And then I got a call partway through that next summer, early on in the next summer that there was an opening at the Children’s Zoo. And so in early summer… Read More
So your first job at the zoo is not as an animal keeper, but you become an animal keeper. Read More
And so the way that was normally done was that you, you volunteered at a veterinary hospital?… Read More
And, you know, maybe that’s what made the difference for me getting into vet school. So, So at what time, so to speak, in the, in your life, did you start thinking, I want to be a veterinarian?… Read More
It, it was really after I had worked in a, in a human hospital and seen medicine and worked with some doctors that I became intrigued by that and kind of put that together with my, you know, kind of lifelong love of animals. And, and the, the zoo part… Read More
He told me later after I was accepted to vet school that he had written me a recommendation. ’cause he knew a couple of the faculty very well and I hadn’t even asked him for a recommendation because not having taken, you know, I thought he had, I haven’t had… Read More
You could, you could sit down with your faculty advisor and make up your own curriculum based on what career path you were on. The downside of that was if you ever dropped below a b average, then all of those went away and you might have two extra years… Read More
There were a lot of people in my class that had a, a bachelor’s degree before they got into vet school, one had a PhD, so, so you do some college before that. And this was, you know, I think some of the folks at my high school had a,… Read More
And what kind of schooling did you have after high school?… Read More