Not long ago, in a far away land, I grew up in a place where Heather Locklear was a cheerleader at the rival high school and the smiling, very skinny checker at the local hardware store, Builder’s Emporium. It was a place where “Charlie’s mom” was Jodie Foster and Kim Basinger was the woman with a margarita in the next booth at Casa De Carlos. The West Valley, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Woodland Hills five miles from Malibu as the crow flies, a place where everyone’s family was “in the business” and by that of course I mean the “industry” – television and film production. I had a purse collection, wore Estee Lauder™, was blessed with one quirky son, had a housekeeper who did laundry; a six-figure income, a standing hair appointment and automatic sprinklers.

Today, I live in the middle of nowhere have forty-six assorted farm animals, countless bees, my son and someone else’s moody teenager, two pairs of coveralls, three vacuums, and a tractor. I do my own roots, darn my woolen socks, press my own cider, have piles of laundry, but still manage to wear my Estee Lauder™. After all, a girl can only go so far.

Lisa from Petsblogs won’t let her kids have a pet monkey.  Not even after watching Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian back in December, when they started bombarding her with requests for one. 

It was all because of Crystal, the Capuchin money who played Dexter in the first edition of the movie back in 2006 and was back for the sequel this year. 
Having one as a pet was a no-no.  But it was all for good reason.  Lisa and her kids learned all about Crystal and Capuchins when they did some research after watching the movie.  

We don’t have the time, the space, or the resources, she wrote in a post where she described the situation.  And here’s what else
Capuchins live pretty and it’s likely to be at least a 30-year commitment (that means you must know that if you start taking care of one now, you may as well be taking care of one 30 years later!)

Paw-Talk here's on a dinosaur kick! While we can't take them home as pets, there's nothing like talking to your average bone collector, as we like to playfully call those fab paleontologists, not all of which even collect bones. 

Look's like we don't have to do too much though.  We'll let this next guy speak for himself.

Not only was it a pleasure to interview esteemed Arizona paleontologist, but the Petrified Forest National Park employee came up with his own introduction! So without further ado, Chinleana blogger: Bill Parker.

My name is Bill Parker and I am a paleontologist in northeastern Arizona. While my day job mainly involves roaming the badlands of Petrified Forest National Park picking up bit after bit of phytosaur scrap (and finding some good stuff in-between), thus my main focus is the paleontology of the Triassic Period. However, I also have a very strong interest in Civil War history, and am a direct descendent of veterans who fought on both sides. Note: This is a personal site and all posts are my own opinions and do not represent the opinions of the National Park Service.

While most of us were receiving our first pet dog, Mathew Wedel was reading National Geographic stories and flipping through picture books on dinosaurs.  While most of us thought about when to feed our pet cat or bird, Mathew had visions of enourmous reptiles in his mind. 

He may never be able to say, "I own a pet Tyrannosaurus Rex," but Mathew is still fascinated by these larger-than-life creatures from the world's past.  He is so much so, that he can say 31 years later he is still dreaming of dinosaurs, finding fossils, and making connections between the birds of today and those terrifying birds of the past.  

Mathew Wedel is a professional paleontologist who studies bones in dinosaurs and bones to learn about the sauropods and theropods of the past.  He's doing a lot of important in the name of our extinct friends, but more importantly, he loves his job.

Besides visiting museums, collecting fossils, going on road trips, and publishing acclaimed papers, Mathew also contributes to the witty, but informative Saurpod Vertebra Picture of the Week (SV-POW) with fellow SV-POWskteers Darren Naish and Mike Taylor (also paleontologists.)

We had the chance to pick apart Mathew Weidel's thoughts just like he picks apart those bones.  

How does one go from being a marine mammal trainer to an employee at the Wildlife World Zoo? Ask Dr. Grey Stafford.  The self-proclaimed animal lover and zoology expert went from a stint at the Sea World of Ohio to earning his doctoral degree to heading up terrestrial and avian species as the Curator of Education at the Wildlife World Zoo and then as Director of Animal Management for Dolphin Quest.  He found himself back at Wildlife World Zoo later as Director of Conservation.

Sounds like a handful of animals already, but Grey says they never lose their appeal and even has his own pets at home with his wife.  Paw-Talk had the chance to talk to Grey about his promising animal career, his guide to training animals with positive reinforcement ZOOmility, and his subsequent website iReinforce presenting powerful tales of training animals using this positive reinforcement method.

Every once in a while, when I have the day off and the sun is shining, I drive up the New Jersey Turnpike, across the George Washington Bridge into New York City, and into the heart of the Bronx. It is there, nestled among the city blocks choked with apartment buildings, that Amur tigers, ring-tailed lemurs, giraffes, and western gorillas have taken up residence in the venerable institution known as the Bronx Zoo.

Even though I have lived in central New Jersey for almost 27 years I had never been to the Bronx Zoo until a few years ago. I first visited it as part of a class trip for a college zoology course and I was greatly impressed. The Bronx Zoo was very different from the small menageries my parents had taken me to as a child, places where leopards paced behind chain-link fences and monkeys huddled in sterile, concrete cells.