Dr. Seuss at the Zoo in Forest Park

I will never get tired of collecting useless zoo trivia... and today I got a new tidbit that I am thrilled with.  Like ninety-percent of the other zookeepers in the world, I had a copy of If I Ran the Zoo, by Dr. Seuss, as a child.  (Today, March 2nd, would have been his 115th birthday).

The book, if you are unfamiliar with, is crammed full of bizarre, Seussian beasts that the books narrator, Gerald McDrew, stocks his dream zoo with, deciding that lions and elephants are just too boring.  It's a fun read, and the first few lines are some of my favorite in all of literature:

"It's a pretty good zoo said young Gerald McDrew,

And the fellow who runs it seems proud of it too

But if I ran the zoo, said young Gerald McDrew,

I'd make a few changes, that's what I'd do."

But did you ever wonder where Seuss - birth name Theodor Geisel - got the idea?  Perhaps from his dear old dad... who was the superintendent of parks in their hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts... which placed him in charge of the Zoo in Forest Park. 

That's right.  Dr. Seuss had a zookeeper as a dad!

We never can tell who the visitors - especially the children - who enter our zoos and aquariums are gong to become one day.  We never know how our animals - and our interactions with visitors - are going to touch their lives and shape their future.  That's something always worth keeping in mind when you are out on grounds or mingling with the public, or taking those extra five minutes to speak to someone about an animal.

From those encounters, anything can happen...