GradaTuesday-Dark, Rainy Parking lots Aren't Just For Murder Any More!

Welcome back!
Hopefully I will have some more blog content for you in the upcoming weeks but until then its that time again!
Time for our 3rd GradaTuesday post, and as always it is brought to you in part by The GradaToad and the letters I,O and U, enjoy!
-Love Bean

"I don't think that is the last we'll see of her"

-LMB

Most people are known for their famous last words, but very few have their famous first words remembered throughout the ages.

Late one spring afternoon, a young woman finished her shift at a busy downtown clinic and packed up a new adoptee to drop off to their forever home. You see, animal adoption is a lot of work, even more so when you are dealing with exotics. Although no stranger to hard work and long hours, this young lady didn't realize just how much work her future held. Not just hard work but sleepless nights, a broken back, nine straight months of vomiting, many Tom concerts, loving people so much you could squeeze them (until they stop breathing....then dispose of their bodies in the back yard), car accidents, speeding tickets, shoveling roofs, road trips, bathtubs full of alligators, tears, laughs and muffins in cars. That evening that young lady named Lisa warmed up a snuggle safe disk, wrapped it in a towel, and placed it inside an empty Paderno pot box, making it nice and cozy for Angus, a beautiful ten-year-old green iguana. My first iguana, the first of many iguanas that Lisa and I would interact with over the years.

Lisa showed up at my front door and rang the buzzer so that I could open the door. I met her in the hall, greeting her with a huge smile I showed her to my apartment. Within seconds of her placing the box on the table, I scooped the iguana up, placed her on my shoulder, and fell in love. When she got home later that evening, her (now) husband asked her how the drop off went. That's when she looked at Dave and said, " I don't think that's the last we'll see of her." (LOL, if he only knew!) and so began fifteen-yes, fifteen years of friendship!

Lisa and I began to chat on a regular basis, then we both sat on the board for a local reptile rescue that she co-founded, doing reptile shows and sharing our love for all of our green scaly friends.

A few years later, on a dark, damp evening, Lisa was kind enough to drive me home to Dartmouth from our Ssafe Haven meeting. We pulled through an intersection, and unprovoked, out of nowhere, she pulled into a Canadian Tire parking lot, put the car in park and, with both hands on the wheel, looked at me and said, " I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" There I sat, very confused and only half sure I wouldn't be murdered right then and there. " WE BOUGHT A ZOO!" I looked at her in shock, still unsure of where this was all going, "And, I want you to work for us." and without hesitation, I replied, "OH! When do I start?" It turns out she wasn't planning on murdering me at all...well, not outright anyway. It was a few months until things got sorted and a few more before I was doing shows regularly, and if all the years before didn't set the scene for insanity, the fact that I did my very first solo show on my birthday in a snowstorm should have tipped me off. As things progressed, I was doing more and more programming with Little Ray's Nova Scotia working weekends and evenings whenever I could. I was probably the only person to take March Break off from one job so that I could work one hundred and forty-four (ish) hours in nine days doing shows. That spring, I had Pneumonia for six weeks; apparently, a diet of coffee, beer, Advil and Goldfish crackers can't keep you alive forever; who knew? The following winter, I quit my real job and started my life as a full time, real-life zookeeper. It only got more fun from there.

We accomplished a lot, and an insane amount if you stop to think about it. I think the most insane stretch was the summer of 2014 when miss Presley Marie was born, making up for all those times her Mom and Dad were running late. She decided to show up six weeks early. During the afternoon of July 4th, I decided I would take my GST cheque and my only Friday night/Saturday off for the foreseeable future and head to The Lower Deck. I got home, hopped in the shower and started to wash off the zookeeper and make myself presentable. I was quite excited to drink some beer and listen to some good tunes. As I danced around my room, singing into my hairbrush, wearing jeans and a bra with my hair in a towel, my phone rang...It was Lisa. In heavy labor, having to stop mid-conversation to get through contractions, she gave me a list of people to call and things that needed to be done because she was having the baby. I still made it to The Lower Deck that night, but I didn't get to spend my GST cheque on beer and sleep until noon; nope, there was too much to do. Because, of course, along with all the excitement of the baby, there was also a hurricane, power outage, animals to tend to, a big event to prep for, staff to deal with, an exhibit at the museum to open, our first week of camp, I put the car "in the ditch"* and Geoff to deal with. The following summer, we lost Tanya, and that's pretty much a blur. But regardless of what went down, we figured it out.

I have learned a lot from Lisa, and I blame a good portion of my current outcome on her...or maybe I should say credit a lot of my current outcome, regardless it's all her fault. She deserves more thanks than I will ever be able to give.

And no, Dave, that wasn't the last you'd see of me...but you still love me anyway :D

*It sounds much more dramatic than it actually was. I had pulled the car over so I could salvage some fallen branches for enclosures at the museum, and due to the storm, the shoulder was soft, and my front passenger tire went in just enough I needed help to get out.