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| Stackable cages for salamanders, hedgehog, |
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| tortoises and African bullfrog (he's the one under the white towel) |
| This rack contains walking stick bugs, cockroaches |
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| and the leaf frog is underneath the brown towel because she likes it dark. |
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT DAY
| Empty, clean carriers set out for the next days |
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| shows. |
CLEANING & FEEDING
| Just a sample of the water and food bowls that are |
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| scrubbed and cleaned every day. |
| Inside our spare freezer filled with surplus mice |
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| in various sizes, chicken fillets & mixed vegetables. |
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| Inside small freezer in animal room. |
My husband Ron and I do all the cleaning and feeding. We wake up around 6 AM to get started and the entire job takes between 1 and 1 1/2 hours every day. None of the animals roam loose or are allowed any contact with one another except Tiny, our 30 pound Sulcata Tortoise and Olivia, the New Zealand Rabbit. They receive a few "free time" hours outside their enclosure to romp about the house and stretch their legs. They get along well with each other and with Zoey, our cat too. Olivia is coaxed back to her house after it's clean with a few treats which she has learned to expect. Tiny stays out most of the day if she is not working. When the weather warms up we will build her a permanent outside structure where she'll be more happy. (Photos of the building process coming soon!!)
Ron cleans the mammals cages and I do the rest. All cages are scrubbed with a professional grade cleanser that kills many forms of bacteria and viruses. Even though there are fewer mammals than the others combined, it's actually a fair trade as the mammals need cleaning every day and some of the others do not. The snakes, for instance, need cleaning once a week maybe and eat just as often. Ron also does the vacuuming after all the cleaning is done. I scrub water and feed bowls and make new food for those animals receiving fresh fruits and vegetables. Our freezer is filled with 5 different sizes of frozen mice and rats along with a bag of mixed veggies and nectar specially made for Lilo & Stitch, our adorable Sugar Gliders. Every Sunday is snake feeding day. I set out 1 pinky rat for the Rat Snake, 2 pinky mice for the Corn Snake, 2 fuzzy mice for the Milksnake, 2 adult mice for one Ball Python, 1 adult rat for the other Ball Python and 1 adult mouse for the African Bullfrog. By the time I come home in the evening from doing my shows, the frozen food is thawed and ready to feed.
| Fresh veggies & fruits for the lizards |
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A PARTIAL LIST OF OUR FEEDSTUFFS
- Live crickets & superworms
- Frozen rats/mice in 5 different sizes
- Timothy hay, guinea pig pellets, rabbit pellets
- Parrot mix
- bag of frozen mixed vegetables, canned mixed fruit
- cooked chicken & hard boiled eggs
- 6 ficus trees & 6 rose bushes (food for walking stick bugs)
- dried worms & sugar glider pellets
- dry cat food for hedgehog
- ramaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, carrots, grapes, kale, spring mix
Total animal food bill 2008: $2,171
Total animal food bill 2009: $2,080
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And don't forget trips to the veterinarian for unusual and weird illnesses and injuries. Think you have a large vet bill from the spaying and neutering your dog, vaccines and flea prevention. Here's our veterinary bill for 2009:
- one hedgehog
- 2 snakes
- one chameleon
- one tarantula
- 2 toads
- several hermit crabs
- one short tailed opossum
- several millipedes
- several hermit crabs
- one chameleon
- 2 frogs
- 2 snakes
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| The office contains 2 desks, computer, copy |
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| machine, 2 file cabinets & Zeke our Chameleon. |
The office is where I think I spend most of my time. Office work, computer work and answering phones take up more time than cleaning cages. As a business owner, not only do I perform all the presentations and the cleaning but also the basic day-to-day chores that keep a business up and running. It doesn't happen without planning, dedication, developing new skills and lots of problem solving. When I'm in the office you can find me doing a smattering of many things like: bookkeeping and accounting, creating new spiels for new shows, inputting customer information in our data base, talking with advertisers, creating new up to date fliers and forms, sending confirmation emails and reminders for upcoming shows, billing customers and logging in payments....the list can go on forever. The computer is always on, one phone- either office or cell phone is with me at all times and so is my calendar for the current and upcoming year as well as forms needed to book a show while on the road.
My desk is always cluttered no matter how hard I try to keep it clean, I have sticky notes taped everywhere along with a dry erase board with notes, my collegues phone numbers and web addresses and books on every type of animal I own from the bugs to reptiles to mammals. My visits to Office Depot are never ending and office supplies account for ahuge chuck of our expenses. See for yourself.
- Advertising: 2008: $12,588 2009: $14,128
- Office Supplies: 2008: $4,365 2009: $2,264
- Internet and phone: 2008: $8,385 2009: $5,193
- Professional and legal fees: 2008: $385 2009: $425
THE VEHICLE
| Inside our minivan. |
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| Does your vehicle have this much stuff in it? |
| Our vehicle on any given day includes the wagon, |
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| animal crates and many supplies. |
The Creature Teacher travels 45,000-50,000 every year. Sometimes we are on the road from 5 AM to late in the evening depending on where we travel and how many shows we have scheduled for the day. We also travel through all kinds of weather and terrain including ice, snow, thunder storms, rush hour traffic, rough dirt roads, one lane highways and battle through construction sites, wait through backed up roads due to traffic accidents and have to find addresses, houses and other facilities in the dark. When you spent as much time on the road as Robyn does, you learn to carry many items with you to help make a day on the road easier and more convenient. Here's just a partial list of what you might find in our van on any given day:
SHOW ITEMS: posters, drapes of tables and wagon, clean towels and newspapers, jug of water, liter bottle of hand sanitizer, hay and pellets for the rodents, nail trimmers, harness and leash, extra T-shirts, lollipops and pencils, Beltblaster PA system, Mapsco map book (just in case the GPS can't find an address or losing connection), baby wipe container and bag of refills and a roll of paper towels.
PERSONAL ITEMS: snack food, water bottle, sunglasses and reading glasses, pens and yearly calendar, gym bag (in case I have time in between shows to get in a workout at the Y), small amount of lunch money for the day, small bottle of hand cream, small bottle of Advil, Garmin GPS, extra T-shirts (in case an animals messes on me during the day), a box of kleenex and one can of Fix a Flat flat tire foam.
Ron takes the van in for servicing every 3,000 miles which may take a month, two weeks or as little a few days. Yearly membership to AAA is a must as since I moved to Texas in 2001, I've have had at least 4 flat tires while traveling which required their prompt service. Here's our "on the road" expenses:
2009 Meals: $551
2009 Toll Tag: $120
2009 Gas:
I do still, however, need gas stations and fast food restaurants for those all important potty breaks as I haven't figured out how to store a port-a-potty in the car!!
| Azle Library performance June 2007 |
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THE SHOWS
The Creature Teacher presents over 450 shows a year. This means working nights and weekends plus weekdays too. We give shows 7 days a week from early morning to late evening. On weekends, we book between 2 to 4 shows every Saturday and Sunday, with Spring and Summer being the busiest seasons. We schedule our "days off" months in advance or we would never get any days off at all. During summer, the majority of our business comes from day care and libraries with over 65 shows every month from June-August. We do take a vacation twice a year but not for more than 5 to 7 days away. Friends and family are kind enough to "babysit" for us as the animals and the facility need to be maintained while we are having fun. While on vacation, Robyn carries her cell phone and laptop so we may still book shows and answer emails and attend to office work while on the road.
