Parent: Zookeeper profile
Local animal handler brings her love of animals home
By Kate Jonuska
You might think that after a 40-hour week of caring for two hippopotamuses — transporting hundreds of pounds of food, brushing gigantic teeth, cleaning up their, ahem, droppings — a person might barricade herself alone in her home, where no other creature could demand her time and energy.
April Hyatt, an animal keeper for the hippos at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, is not such a person. In fact, her household includes two dogs, two cats, three parrots, two fish tanks and a bunch of “little ones,” like her two rats.
“Honestly, we’ve got a lot of little stuff I end up bringing home because I work at the pet store (in addition to the zoo),” says Hyatt. “I find myself being most complete when I’m around animals. I also pet-sit and work at a dog wash once a week.”
CLICK HERE to read a PDF of this article, which published in the July 2008 Pikes Peak Parent magazine.
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