tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876116775636509424.post3475542060743493499..comments2018-05-02T17:44:55.279-04:00Comments on Running Hard out of Muskrat Flats: Jiggs part 2..."I'll get up and Fly away...Fly Away"Running Hard Out Of Muskrat Flatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06175079462074186790noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8876116775636509424.post-47956175742899673032009-03-11T15:16:00.000-04:002009-03-11T15:16:00.000-04:00Hi Paul,Thanks for the stories on Forest Park. I v...Hi Paul,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the stories on Forest Park. I volunteered at Trailside Museum with Bill TOmpkins for several years, about 1970. If I remember correctly it was either Hazel or Tuffy the Tiger whose cage was adjacent to Jiggs and Nancy. <BR/><BR/>There were four cages on that side of the Monkey House, When I was there Harry and Tillie were together, in the first, and had several litters of cubs, then Tuffy in the cage next to the lions, and the next housed Hazel, a young tigress. (I'm not sure when she arrived, but perhaps after the lions were paired up. <BR/><BR/>I spent a lot of time with little Jiggsy, and was allowed behind the chain link fence, so he and I would often hold hands. He was prone to trickery though, and one day he slipped a ring off a visitor's hand, and popped it into his mouth and climbed to the top of the cage. I went close to try to encourage him to return the ring to me; he climbed down but was teasing me with the ring in his hand, and when I reached through the bars to take the proffered ring HE BIT ME. He clamped down with his canine tooth on my right index finger, at the base of my nail, and he pressed just hard enough to turn my nail blue, but not enough to break the skin. He let go after a minute and gave me the ring, which I returned to the owner.<BR/><BR/>This was the least of his tricks, I often saw him fill his cheeks with water, climb to the top of the cage and wait for a crowd to gather by the fence. He would then spray his fans with a shower of water. Other times he urinated from up there when the visitors were standing unawares beneath him. He would grin and slap the concrete when everyone roared with indignation. <BR/><BR/>I also remember a blind Rhesus monkey named Susie in the cage directly across from Jiggsy and Nancy, the last cage on that aide. She was so gentle and would sit quietly and extend her hands through the bars when she heard footsteps. She knew my voice, and knew I would bring her treats from the bags of stale pastries we had at Trailside. She would stroke the back of my hand before she took the goodies. <BR/><BR/>Among the outdoor critters, my favorites were the sun bears who would delicately hold an ice cream cone and lick it clean before eating the cone. And Rex the timber wolf, located in a short concret run next to the red and grey foxes and the dingoes, near the shuffleboard courts and snack bar. My parents often allowed me to bring a big knucklebone for Rex, and the caretaker let me in to give it to him. Big dog, small cage.<BR/><BR/>Oh yeah, and Snowball, she almost grabbed me, too. I had a large chunk of frozen fish from Trailside and I went over to her cage to give it to her. I pushed it against the chain link she was enclosed by, and she started to pull it through but it caught, so as I reached to grab it and give it a push again she suddenly ROARED and she tore into the chunk, chainlink fence and all, and yanked it through. Then she calmly went off to eat it. Yikes, I counted my fingers and was glad to find ten.<BR/><BR/>I am glad that the monkey house is gone, the concrete and iron bars saddened me then, and still do. Yet, I can't help but be thankful that I had the opportunity to shares thousands of hours with the animals housed there. <BR/><BR/>I went on to get my biology degree and became the aquarist at the Springfield Science Museum, another place I spent thousands of hours in when I was a kid. <BR/><BR/>Animals and kids, a good combination if you want to raise kids with true humanity.<BR/><BR/>Sue Clark<BR/>West SpringfieldAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com