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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Shameless Plug

This weekend I'm driving back up to my Dad's house to go to the open house where he works. My father and stepmother have rather unconventional jobs. They are basically elephant-keepers. Yep, no fooling. But they don't work in zoo or circus...much much different!

They both work for PAWS - That's Performing Animal Welfare Society. It's an animal sanctuary where "abandoned or abused performing animals and victims of the exotic animal trade can live in peace and contentment." I'm sure I can't do it justice with any description I could muster up, so I lifted the following from their site.
"Founded by former Hollywood animal trainer and author, Pat Derby, and partner, Ed Stewart, PAWS maintains 3 sanctuaries for captive wildlife -- 30 acres in Galt, CA, the 100-acre Amanda Blake Wildlife Refuge in Herald, California and ARK2000, 2300 acres of beautiful natural habitat in San Andreas, CA.PAWS is internationally recognized as a leader in animal welfare -- dedicated to the rescue of performing and exotic animals from cruel confinement and performances of pain. Among our greatest concerns are the treatment of animals in traveling shows, animal acts, television and movies, as well as the problem of captive breeding, inadequate standards for captive wildlife and the exotic animal trade."

Dad and my stepmother work at ARK2000, with the elephants, and both of my brothers have worked there previously. There is also a tiger facility at that location, with another staff. Anyway, I haven't ever been up there when the elephants were up by the barns (which are massively huge!), so the open house should be fun. My friend Kristin is coming up too, and this will be the first time that she has seen my baby brother.

Another plan for tomorrow - secret santa exchange at work, then the holiday luncheon for our department. The boss is letting us go home early afterwards. It's not going to be a very productive day. (I'm okay with that.) And since I'm getting out early, I am going to be having an exciting afternoon. Yep, I'm going to sit at the Chevy dealership and wait for a tow-truck to show up to tow the dead car over to my step-father's shop. I have to be there when the tow truck comes. At least I've got a book to read - who knows how long I'll have to wait for a truck to show up? And after that, I'm heading straight to my Dad's. I'm hoping I still miss rush hour...(I hope for a lot, don't I?)


7 comments:

Kristin said...

It will be fun. Probably rain. Dont forget the firehat, give it to jodie.

Pancho said...

What's with this firehat you keep mentioning? Is that a code word for something else?

BellaKarma said...

I'm adding PAWS on Look to the Stars tonight!

Dagny said...

PAWS sounds completely cool. Sorry about the bad weather for the weekend though.

Fluffycat said...

wow the elephants sound very cool. i went to the circus a few years ago and was amazed at how patient those poor elephants were. i wanted to watch them shake off their costumes and start trampling the trainers, haha. they really do seem like such intelligent, soulful animals. i hope your visit was fun.

Kristin said...

The elephants and tigers were great. IT was good to see the little brother finally also.

**firehat is a code and i cant tell you if i tell you what it is.

Tami said...

Yes Pancho. You shall never know the secret joys of *firehat*

Kristin and I got some good pictures of the animals (though the fencing is very prominent). If everyone asks nicely, maybe I'll share some.