I must have lived in Africa in another life. I have always loved anything Africaan…the music, the dusty plains, the beautiful people and of course the animals…this all long before I actually went there.

I think my love of all things Africaan began with my father who taught me to be a Naturalist. By the time I was 2 he says I could name all of the animals in the animal encyclopedia. He took us fishing and camping, to zoos and parks. We were always collecting bugs, salamanders, snakes and other wild creatures.

By the time my father left, when I was 8, I was already certain that my career would one day be with animals; a biologist, field researcher or zoologist. I even wrote a letter to Jane Goodall asking what I should study to prepare for such a career. Her staff was kind enough to write back and offered a list of books. I read National Geographic, watched all the Nature programs and dreamed of the day I would be in Africa.

Life never seems to go the way we had it planned. It has an energy of its own that pulls us in directions we did not imagine. And so instead of pursuing my dream, I ended up married at 18. This in itself should not have ended my career plans, but I no longer had the same enthusiasm. Instead of pursuing a college degree I opted to volunteer as a keepers assistant at the Sacramento zoo.

The following pages are stories from The Zoo.