And Bird Dog lived in the apartment building that I lived in and I went to see him. His place, it was empty and he was gone. And it was because he couldn’t tolerate Warren Thomas. He couldn’t tolerate stuff that Thomas was doing to him. And that’s the way… Read More
I’m not positive of that, honestly. Read More
Was there an assistant director at the time, or were you the next guy after Warren?… Read More
No, I don’t, I can’t remember if Leroy Thomas was called assistant director or not. I honestly can’t remember. But he sort of, he functioned like it though. And Leroy had come from Oklahoma City with you. Yes. And Bird Dog did too. No it was, yeah that’s right, that’s… Read More
But Warren Thomas did have issues with dealing with people, and he, the person that was next to him usually bore the brunt of it. And even though Bird Dog knew what Warren was, because he had been with him in Oklahoma City too of course, he did agree to… Read More
How are you gonna do it?… Read More
How are you gonna know to do it and what to do?… Read More
The right thing to do so the animal is taken care of, and not, you know, not killed in the process. And it’s very difficult for people who have never done it before. It’s impossible, I think. And so Warren Thomas is director. Read More
Well, we- When we first started at the Omaha Zoo, (laughing) they weren’t any different than it was at Oklahoma City Zoo. I was taking care of the primates. Read More
I was the guy, and other things too actually, because by then I had really gotten experience with other animals, you know?… Read More
And so I was actually taking care of them, many of them, and doing things, you know, like in the wintertime we would go down and chip ice out of the bear claws, and I was doing that too. So, and once again, the whole thing of being, doing everything… Read More
Well, they were offering more than double what he made, and he wasn’t about to go there naked without other people that he knew. So he wanted to take me with him, and he wanted to take another couple of people with him. Alberto Rogers, who some people know, was… Read More
And I thought it was a good idea to move up, and then I wouldn’t be even called keeper anymore. I’d be called general curator. So I said, “Well, that sounded good to me.” And so we went up there. He went first, and later on I came a few… Read More
What were your responsibilities as general curator at this zoo?… Read More
Well, I was always interested in them, I think, but being close to them, ’cause I was so close to them. Yes, I was so close to them I believe it did, you know, really stimulate me, so I really did get, and I think love is exactly the word… Read More
And so it became quite a, but anyway, he was, he got a big, relatively big name for himself. And some people came to see him from the Omaha Zoo, that they wanted to build a better zoo in Omaha. ‘Cause they had a, really a little place there in… Read More
Okay, we’ll get to that, I’m just curious, Were you involved in budget things with the director?… Read More
Were you involved in any of that or you were just, your job was taking care of primates?… Read More
No I wasn’t, yeah no, I was not really involved that much. In the budgeting and things like that, no I wasn’t. Read More
Do you think this formative years kind of got you your love of the great apes, or your interest?… Read More