Kelly's Animal Tales
As I just celebrated my five year anniversary with the Weiss Wealth Strategies team, I was reflecting on some of my past experiences that got me where I am today. Before joining the team, I worked with Raymond James financial advisors from all over the country on the managed money part of their business (Asset Management Services). I did this job for over 15 years and over time, I found myself to be pretty good at dealing with a lot of different personalities. I think that this skill was partly honed in one of the most unexpected places…
A long, long time ago when I did not have to add blonde to cover my grays, I was a zookeeper. I was in college and working full time at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL. Over my six year tenure as a zookeeper I cared for many different animals and have amazing memories of doing such...to name a few - koalas, chimpanzees, gorillas, parrots and all the little guys most are weary of (tarantulas, snakes and rats, oh my!). I have a few good stories – especially of the gorillas—that I will share with you.
When one is new to the gorilla area (or house as we called it), there are rites of passage through which a zookeeper must go. “Lash”, our male 600 pound Western Lowland silverback gorilla, was more than willing to indoctrinate any new keeper with his brand of mischievousness. We would switch out silverbacks each day to be with the female gorillas out in the “yard” (we were looking to produce some youngsters) which is just that – the outside area they reside in during the day, and in the evening, they all come back into the house for rest. Lash loved his alone time every other day with the zookeeper staff. In particular, he loved to run up and down the corridor of the mesh cage he was in with a keeper running alongside him, like a game of chase or maybe a race. So during my first week I challenged Lash to a good run down the corridor, which he loved of course until I ended the race in the lead…I’m sure you can imagine what happens next but I’ll tell you anyway :). Lash literally came to a screeching halt, looked at me as if I was a criminal, then looked about for some handy poo and hurled it right at me through the mesh as I ran frantically out of his target space. My cohorts watched and rolled on the ground laughing of course and one of the keepers then gave me some sage advice: “Always let Lash win.”
On another day Lash was having a blast swinging on a huge tire swing inside the house. He got a little rambunctious and fell off the swing (it was close to the ground and he was fine) and I started laughing. Well I do not have to tell you what came next but he was NOT happy to have anyone laughing at his expense and I went quickly running off while he speedily looked for some poo to chuck!
Our other male silverback, who stayed in the house on the alternate days was named “Makini”. In contrast to the two-year-old angst ridden Lash, Makini was the most gentle, sweet-hearted lovable 375 pound gorilla. When we would finish cleaning for the day, we would work on “husbandry” with any gorillas that were inside the house. Husbandry is working with the animals so that they tolerate close visual inspection by keepers and treatment by veterinarians, if need be. Makini was my favorite to work with. On one particular day, he came and sat down by me (mesh separating us of course). We worked on touching feet and fingers, and a cotton swab held to the outside of his ear, with treats in between. He spontaneously reached over and grabbed a piece of romaine lettuce, tore it in half, and handed the other half out the mesh to me. I pretended to take a bite (as he ate his half), tore it in half and handed the quarter back to him. He then tore the quarter in half and handed it back, and we went on like this until there was the tiniest speck of romaine on his HUGE finger that he passed out to me. I will always keep these moments close with me. A huge, magnificent mammal with an even bigger heart.
I could go on and on – raising a baby koala from birth to drawing pictures with the chimps in the chimp house (they LOVED to watch us draw!). I will always cherish those college days at the zoo – I learned such an appreciation for these lovely endangered animals and I would not trade the experience for anything…and of course – to “Always let Lash win.” :)
-Kelly Hughes, April 2022
Kelly and Kabluey
