Coatis, gibbons and mountain lions, oh my!

Kat with a barn owl at the Family Circus at Moorpark College's
 Exotic Animal Training and Management on her graduation day.

(Editor's note: While I get ready to go to my daughter's wedding in Rhode Island, my husband graciously volunteered to pinch hit for me, and reflect on his daughter's graduation.)

By Jim Skeen

In just about every great photo I have of my daughter, Kat, there is an animal. There’s one of her feeding a giraffe, another of her getting a kiss from a beluga whale. There’s one – actually several shots – of her with a llama.

When Kat poses for shots, she tends to be a bit stiff. In pictures with animals, you can see the joy she has in connecting with the creature.

At zoo camp in Busch Gardens,
Tampa Bay, Fla.

Growing up, there was also an animal around for her. There was Pinky, the beautiful calico cat; Chip, the cat with the pretty blue eyes; Dottie, the beautiful, but spacey Dalmatian; Star, the loving mutt; and Punky, the fat tabby. I think that she has never had a minute without an animal – if there was a time, it didn’t last long.

I have a theory that her love of animals was cemented at about two-and-a-half years old. We were relaxing in Golden State Park in San Francisco when a squirrel chasing after a prospective mate ran up Kat’s leg. The creature stopped about midway up her thigh and the two of them just froze looking at each other. The squirrel was probably paralyzed with fear, Kat stilled by wonderment of such a close encounter.

I bring this up because Kat  just recently graduated from the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College – a program known as “America’s Teaching Zoo.”

At graduation, Kat was joyful and was looking forward to the next phase of her life. I, on the other hand, was experiencing the bitter sweetness of the joy of her accomplishment mixed with the feeling of a connection being broken with her school.

Getting a kiss form a beluga whale at Sea World. San Antonio, Texas.

Like other long-term relationships, I can’t remember exactly remember when our relationship with Moorpark started – it just seems like it’s always been part of our lives. I think I was looking for something for the two of us to do and came across a listing for the school’s weekend openings for the public. This was at least 12 years ago.

Kat loved the idea of a school where you learned about animals. Shortly after we started our visits to Moorpark, Animal Planet ran a series called “Moorpark 24/7” about life at the school. Kat was hooked and she knew exactly where she was going to go to school.

A snow leopard cub at the LA Zoo.

To help her get into Moorpark, she started volunteering at the Los Angeles Zoo – first as a general volunteer, then a student volunteer, and then as an enrichment volunteer. She worked with a zookeeper, Dani, who was a Moorpark graduate herself. With Dani’s help, Kat not only got to work with a lot of animals, she also got some great quality moments – like holding snow leopard cubs and getting a kiss from a Sumatran rhino.

I started volunteering at the zoo as well. Over the years, I got to meet a lot of Moorpark students, who are required to put in work days at the L.A. Zoo as part of their course work. I kept thinking about how I couldn’t wait for Kat’s zoo days.

A quick history on Moorpark, or EATM, as we often call it: It was established as a major at Moorpark College in 1974.  Bill "Briz" Brisby, a professor at the college, started the program with one animal —"Kiska" the wolf, according to a history on the school’s website. The animal collection and the education program grew over time. The zoo now has about 200 different kinds of animals.

EATM graduates go into all kinds of animal work – training guide dogs, working with dolphins for the Navy, working at zoos and theme parks, working for conservation programs, and some even go into TV and film work.

Practicing behaviors with Kissu, the mountain lion.

The program is very popular and each year it gets more applicants than it has spaces for so there is a lottery drawing. Kat missed getting picked the first year she applied, but got in the next year.

There is a good reason why the Animal Planet was called “Moorpark 24/7” — the students are responsible for most of the care, feeding and well-being of those animals. Animals require constant attention and the students practically live at the school. Days off are rare and precious. If I wanted to see Kat, I had to go to EATM. I went to that school so often, I felt like I had an ownership stake in it.

Moorpark gave Kat great opportunities. She got to work with a skunk, a gibbon, a chattering lorry, a water buffalo, a coati, and, her favorite, a mountain lion named Kissu.

Kissu the mountain lion waits for dinner.

During her time with Kissu, he had to have surgery to remove a large mass from his stomach. Kat was part of a 24/7 watch on him afterward and spent much of her time helping with his recovery. For an all-too-brief time, Kissu rebounded, but a few days later his health sank again and he had to be euthanized.

At Kat’s graduation, one of the things she was recognized for was making Kissu’s last days quality ones.

On graduation day, I had one more walk around the zoo. I kept thinking about all the years we had talked about getting Kat into the program, about how she hoped her name would get picked in lottery, and how she would do. A decade-plus of planning and hoping was over and it seemed to have vanished in a flash. I felt a great sadness.

I will go back to Moorpark. I will bring Charlotte and any other grandchild that might come my way. Charlotte will be looking at the animals; I’ll be looking at the students, knowing what they had gone through to be where they are and the great moments they are having.  I will think of Kat and Kissu.

America's Teaching Zoo is open every weekend from 11am to 5pm. Admission is $5 for Adults, $4 for children and seniors.

Moorpark can be reached by taking the  118 freeway west to the Collins Exit. Turn right at the offramp stoplight and continue past the next stoplight (Campus Rd). Turn right into the second entrance past the stoplight, directly across from University Drive.  Turn to the right in the parking lot and continue right up the short hill to the right.

At left, is a book written about EATM.