Part 6

I remember hearing "Hello" followed by joyful laughing that sounded
very familiar. It came from an Amazon parrot who had Beth's voice.
The Macaw, Peter the quaker, doves, and tiels quickly joined in the
greeting. The Amazon, not to be outdone, raised his voice to top the
other birds. Meanwhile, down below were two of the most adorable
doggies begging to say hi. I saw some neat turtles and an awesome small
species of tortoise. I got to feel the powerful muscles in the legs of
the tortoise.

In another room, I finally met, Alex, Beth's son. Beth and I have many
things in common, but the biggest thing we have in common is that her
two youngest children seem to be the mirror image of my own. Her
daughter is Chet's age and is very like him minus Chet's loud, crazy
sense of humor and his outdoor adventure seeking. Alex has Landau
Klefners syndrome (wrong spelling, I'm sure) that leaves him with
the exact same behavior found in moderate to severe autism. Sean is
autistic and they are the same age. Alex had just arrived home and
after a brief hello, he found a wet spot on his shirt. He was mortified
and raced inside. He was now glued to creating things on the computer.
In the same room, I met the long awaited Fennec fox. Not only did we
get to pet him, but Chet got to hold him. I thought about Flash, the
long time poster child for Critter Camp. I watched many movies of him,
and loved him from afar. He had just recently passed and everyone in
the home misses him horrible. I never did get to meet him. I was sad
about that. Luckily that was interrupted by Beth holding a white dove
in front of my face! And hence began the tour of the next room.

I'm fuzzy, so from here on out, I'll just name a few animals I got to
see and touch. Degus, hamsters, gerbils, ratties, and kinkajous among
many other species. I finally got to see why some people call Sugar
Gliders "Sugar Bears". Beth's sugar gliders were not the thin small
ones that I often see in pictures. Her females are robust and the males
hysterically chunky with fur and fat surrounding their faces giving
them a teddy bear appearance. Beth saved the best for last, the ferret
room. I was amazed to see that all but one ferret could live peacefully
and joyfully together. They surrounded me eager to play. Beth's life of
sheltering all began because of two little ferrets. My how they have
changed the lives of so many today. It's mind boggling to think about.
We could not stay to play with them. Beth gave them some ferretone so
we could quickly escape out of the room safely.

Before leaving, I Beth got to spend a minute with our extra little
stowaway from our journey. A little baby, South American (or Brazilian)
short-tailed opossum. Come to find they are one of the best kept little
secrets of exotic pets. A chipmunk, unless intensely handraised and not
just handfed, is a little bit of a challenge to bond with. And unless
you have an incredible amount of time and patience, there is no telling
how the future with them will turn out. You could end up with a snuggle
bear or just a companion that loves to be with and on you, but in
constant motion. Despite all of our research, we overestimated the
chipmunk and the possibility of him being a traveling buddy for Chet.
It was one of the main reasons he wanted one! The exotic breeder handed
him something that was the opposite of hyper and that is safe to bring
outside, the possum. It was such a hard choice. The possum is somewhat
nocturnal and so is Chet. The possum is gentle and snuggly and becomes
tightly bonded to it's human. Chet is an intense fan of squirrels and
chipmunks. Chipmunks are beautiful and as people and the UK already
know, great pets. What to do. The breeder had a solution. He offered
the possum to Chet at half price seeing how torn he was. Each pet would
serve it's purpose. As far as camping, outdoor life and big squeezable
fun he still had Zee his ferret. Problem solved. Beth and her daughter
fell in love with the little possum. They had never seen one in person.
Wow, who knew I'd be able to give her something ... the experience of
seeing and holding one.


Part 7

We had to leave then, after only a couple hours. I feel so bad. Beth
did not get to meet "Wolfy" that day. She only got to see a mild
mannered Rebecca Stout. Beth, I'm sorry for that. I pray that I get
to meet her again in the future so that she can meet the real Wolfy.

I feel like I've been to college after my trip. In a matter of hours I
had opposite experiences involving exotic pets. The first one was at
the breeders. The breeder we went to does not earn his entire living on
the sale of exotics. It's more of a passion in life. It's a very small
home business that he runs on the side. His wife is surviving ovarian
cancer. Because of the dreaded and often fatal disease, their entire
lives have been turned inside out. They made up their minds to wake up
each day and do exactly what they want for the rest of their lives.
They share the intense love of animals and the love of bringing that to
others, and so they live most of their lives devoted to breeding. The
man is a "fan" of exotics. It was obvious that he turned a bit of a
blind eye to the negatives because he loves them so much. In addition,
just like any other breeder, there is the money involved. Of course he
wants to make that sale. There were little details that I found he was
off about with various pets. But not much. And he did take some
extensive time getting to know you and what you wanted in a companion
before selling you one. Even with a customer like Chet who had a
chipmunk and nothing else in mind but a chipmunk, he took the time. He
spotted some expectations that Chet had about owning a chipmunk that
were a bit off. He quickly matched him up with something else at the
same price hoping he'd change his mind. When he saw Chet so torn
between the two species, he cut one of the prices in half. Each animal
meets very different needs, that's why it was hard to choose. In any
case, this guy got to see and feel someone's excitement and happiness
from getting a new baby. His experience ends there.

The next experience was reality overload. Beth Randall see's mostly the
negatives of various exotic pets and everything that can go wrong. And
her experience ends where the breeders leaves off. She gets to see and
feel the sad and sometimes tragic endings that can eventually fall upon
humans and animals that they buy. She does not live with mostly cute
babies that the parents take care of for the most part. She lives with
the demands of full grown adults and everything that goes along with
them.

Those cute degu's at the mans house? Yah, behind the cages at Beth's
are walls of pee. Turns out they shoot pee up to two foot. Find that on
the internet. The adorable, sweet sugar gliders? They call the sounds
they make "crabbing" for a reason. They are just that, not just moody
but often times crabby. And they are little pee factories often
relieving themselves on you. The ratties? Can sometimes be terrible
biters. They are not always the perfect pet some say they are. The
kinkajous could dismember you just for their entertainment, if they
felt like it. The list goes on and on. And I don't' care how educated
you are, how many pets you've met in person in the past, nothing
prepares you to see the teeth on the marbled arctic fox, the elaborate
work that goes into the parrots diets, the pee that rolls down your
sleeve when you hold a sugar glider, the smell of the pee from a degu,
or the aggression of an adult kinkajou. Nothing. Beths's job is to
educate others and offer homeless, misunderstood exotics the best
quality life that she is capable of giving. And she does it with joy.


To see photos and movies from Critter Camp and to read about her dream
and view the blueprints for her stand alone sanctuary to better provide
for the residents there, visit: http://www.crittercamp.biz/

[Posted in FML 6504]