I did. I was very fortunate to meet Dr. Conley and have an opportunity really to talk to him. I tend to do this in the weirdest situations. I met him when I was working on an animal by myself, and he roamed in, and I didn’t actually know who… Read More
And then my husband, Dayton Baker, who ran the National Aviary for many years, worked with him on several projects that they were working on through the National Aviary. So we actually met and had dinner with them on a couple of occasions. So it was a lot of fun. Read More
So your internship was how long?… Read More
So were you interacting with senior staff at the zoo, aside from the vet?… Read More
Well, we did a little bit, because we were working with, usually the curators would show up, Jim Daughtery would show up if we’re working on some birds or something, and, we would have a chance to interact with those folks. So I met many of them. But we really,… Read More
Did you happen to meet the then zoo director of the Bronx Zoo?… Read More
So what were your duties there?… Read More
Well, I was a student extern. So basically we tagged along with the veterinarians and we did whatever we could do to help out, basically hold anesthesia, basically what a vet student is able to do. I was very good, ’cause I’d actually been, I went to vet tech school… Read More
Most of what we did with fish medicine, at that time, was pathology. Post whatever died and see if we can figure it out from there. Read More
I actually contacted Emil Dolensek and the staff there and begged them to take me on as an intern, or what they called an extern at that point. A student, basically, a vet student coming on. And they had a program there, it was one of the few programs at… Read More
And then I went to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago as a student. Oh, hold it, I’m getting ahead of the questions. Let’s just stick with New York for a minute. Okay. Read More
So that was very hard to get. Alright, so you’ve graduated from vet school. Auburn, Alabama. I’m a War Eagle. Okay. You’ve graduated and you now know a zoo veterinarian is what you’re striving to be. Read More
How did you get this start?… Read More
It was an internship at the Bronx Zoo. Yes. Read More
How did that come about?… Read More
Well, as I said, at Auburn you had a senior project that you had to do, and so you had to come up with something. Well, most people did a lit search, they took the easy way route and they did a lit search, and they spent a couple of… Read More
And so I got behind the scenes there because of that project. And I got to learn, and boy, I tell you what, I must have sacrificed 400 pigeons learning that technique before I could go to the zoo and convinced them that this little vet student could help them… Read More
Well my daddy was a school teacher, he was a science teacher, and so he was very good at teaching and helping you learn, as was all my uncles and all that kind of thing. So it was hard work. It was hard work and actually, quite frankly, I couldn’t… Read More
When did you decide, I don’t want to be a horse doctor, I think I want to work at zoos?… Read More
How’d that come about?… Read More