March 9th, 2011 Tinker the opossum has retired! 

After three years of wrapping his tail around your fingers and snuggling in the hoods of your sweatshirts, we have made the tough decision to retire our little guy.  The average life span of this species is just 4 years, and Tinker turned 4 a month ago.  Over the past few months he has been showing some difficulty climbing, and for the last few days it seems that even getting out of bed is exhausting for Tinker.  Later this week we will be switching him to a one level "Senior Living" cage where everything he needs is within easy reach.

To any kids who requested Tinker for your upcoming birthday party:  We know you will understand, and your party is still going to be awesome!  Always remember that the health and happiness of your animals comes first.  -Matt

September, 2010  Family Vacation at Disney World!

Finally, a long awaited vacation!  The three of us went to Disney for eleven days and it was the most amazing vacation we have ever been on.  Well, it was our first "real vacation" with Jackson so that is the main reason it was so amazing.  He was so excited and so great the entire time.  He absolutely LOVED meeting the characters and by far his favorite was Donald Duck. 

I took Jackson on his first ever lizard hunt near the pool at our hotel and let me tell you, he is one amazing kid!  Here is a boy who is 14 months old, and when I get all excited and point into a bush saying "Lizard!" he would squat down, peek into the bush looking exactly at the lizard that blends in pretty darn well, smile at me and excitedly say "li-dird!" (as he calls it).  He did this repeatedly throughout our vacation.  Whenever we had some down-time I would start pointing animals out to him, and by the end of our vacation he was beginning to see things before me.  We would be sitting there eating lunch or something and suddenly Jackson would be yelling "Duck! Duck! Duck!", pointing out the window.  Melissa and I would look around doubtfully, not see anything and then a few seconds later I'd see the duck!  He spots all kinds of things all the time and points them out to us, and he is never wrong. 

By the way, we always seem to find animals wherever we go (or maybe they find us?) and this trip was no exception.  The first night I (Matt) couldn't sleep so I went out at midnight with my head lamp which I literally take with me wherever I go (seriously, just ask my wife - she calls it my "geeker") and saw some really neat animals.  I spotted and then sat with several rabbits, found a multitude of frogs, and then topped it all off by finding a gorgeous corn snake as it was climbing a palm tree to raid a bird's nest.  It looked almost identical to our own girl Clementine!

July 17th, 2009 Our son Jackson was born!

We are so proud to introduce the newest addition to our family!  Jackson Thomas Gabriel was born at 3:14PM at Norwood Hospital.  He was 21 inches and 6lb 12 oz of joy.  

May, 2009  Matt goes to Tracker School!

I just spent an amazing and exhausting week in the New Jersey Pine Barrens at Tracker School.  This school, run by the renowned tracker, naturalist and author Tom Brown, Jr. teaches classes on tracking, wilderness survival, awareness and Native American philosophy.  I graduated the "Standard Class", which is the only required class to take because it is kind of the intro into every branch of the school.  This week was epic!  Myself and approximately 100 other people were transported by van into the heart of the Pine Barrens.  We arrived at our new home for the week:  The "Primitive Camp".  This camp in the middle of nowhere is run like a finely oiled machine.  Class began every morning by or before 8:00am, and ended most nights somewhere between 10:00-11:00pm.  The ENTIRE time in-between was taken up with lecture upon lecture and some workshops too.  We did get meal breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but they were "working breaks" where we worked on the skills we had just learned while we ate.  I arrived home at the end of the week feeling like I was brain-dead.

The information and skills that I learned during this week will stay with me the rest of my life, and has incredibly enhanced my animal programs.  I recommend that everyone should go and take this course.  There is not a doubt in my mind that this will change your life!  If you are interested in finding out more information about Tracker School, I have included a link to their website below.

August, 2008  New Adoptions!

We are thrilled to announce that we have some new additions to our animal family!  We made the drive up to New Hampshire to pick up a female bearded dragon a family no longer wanted.  We have named her "Amber".  Our new corn snake "Clementine" belonged to a little boy who was bored of her in Framingham, and our new chinchilla "Rudy" lived in Sudbury with a little girl who was bady allergic to him.  We are so lucky to have these guys!  Check out their info pages for their photos and more about their stories!

June, 2008 Honeymoon in heaven

After an incredible wedding in beautiful Bermuda amongst 18 of our closest family and friends, Melissa and I left for our honeymoon.  Most honeymooners depart for the romantic getaway of their dreams, but for us this meant wrangling alligators and crocodiles in the mud.  It was awesome!  Don't get me wrong, we started our vacation innocently enough by spending two days at Seaworld in Orlando, FL and three days at Discovery Cove. 

Discovery Cove is an incredible all-inclusive park where you can feed and pet birds in a huge aviary, swim and interact with dolphins, and snorkel in a man-made tropical reef teeming with fish.  It's also where I asked Melissa to marry me by having a dolphin bring her a buoy that read "Will you marry me?" on it.  We couldn't resist going back there for our honeymoon.  But, being around all of these animals made us just want more!  

Melissa surprised me for my birthday by booking a "trainer for a day" program for us at Gatorland.  We had done it once before, and it was great to go back and see our friends there.  This time, it had a spin on it: Because we work with animals and we had done the trainer for a day program before, we were going to be allowed to do things no other training groups could do.  Our three objectives were to move an eight foot alligator to a new enclosure, dig up eggs from an alligator nest, and dig up eggs from an endangered cuban crocodile nest.  My wife is sooooo good to me. 

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