The Official Houston Zoo Blog

Meet Pat, a simply lovely person and wonderful volunteer who I mentioned I’d write about in a previous post a little ways back. Pat has been giving generously, not just of her time but in many other ways for over 6 years! She comes in weekly — in the morning as an Elephant Keeper Aid then pitches in at the aquarium afterwards, which is where her husband Paul also volunteers.

Pat started out at the general commissary where food for our animals is ordered, prepared to the needs and specifications of each species and delivered to our keepers. Once she moved on to feeding the fish, all that experience came in handy.

Then she heard about an opportunity to be on the rare and unique experience of a birth watch for one of the baby elephants. Taking the midnight to 4 AM shift, Pat and a handful of like-minded volunteers (meaning: crazily committed people– Dale, who I wrote about HERE, was one of them) kept their vigil in a trailer with TV monitors trained on the pens for months and months waiting for the baby to be born.  But it’s clear the rewards were great.  “I was there when the baby was born!” says Pat. She was able  to watch over the TV monitors since only our highly trained staff were allowed in the actual barn. “We continued our shifts for awhile after she’d arrived”

Pat says she made many friends in those wee hours, as the weeks of waiting piled up. “And,” added Pat, “ it was then that I witnessed  the tremendous devotion of the elephant keepers.”  Pat decided she wanted to continue working with the elephants and boy did she get into it, as the picture below shows!  Pat told me with a twinkle in her voice, “Elephant pooper-scooper, that’s my claim to fame!”

Hey, I understand. After my stint as a carnivore keepers aid, I wrote about scooping bear poop myself.  Let’s face it, it’s an amazing job!

When the opportunity to go on safari with zoo staff and other volunteers came up, Pat went along with them to Kenya and got to know a new bunch of people over the dozen days they were traveling.

“It was like a walking encyclopedia to be on safari. People like Sharon Joseph and Tammy (in Primates) were so knowledgeable about all of the animals that they knew more than our guides occasionally! My daughter and I didn’t have to use our guide books very often, since we could just ask them the questions.” And with that, she gave a little chuckle.

When Pat sent me the picture below, my eyes almost fell out of my head!  I mean, how many people can say they’ve done this?!?!!!

She’s even had parties at the zoo for her sister’s 50th birthday and for her own 60th. “I don’t know if people realize just what a great venue the zoo is for throwing your own parties.”

For as much as Pat gives to our zoo, she’s also a volunteer and on the Board of Directors for Taping for the Blind and is a tour guide for Houston TranStar. Known for “adopting” zoo friends, most notably a Thanksgiving meal for those who aren’t with family each year and throwing baby showers and the like, Pat and Paul also found room in their rather large hearts to adopt two rescue kitties! (Note to self– get Pat and Paul to bring in cat pictures).

Becoming a volunteer at the Houston Zoo opens the door to many a world. Certainly being a visitor is a way to experience things, see things, feel things that you might only if you were a world traveler — and an exotic one at that (and you don’t even have to leave your own back yard). But becoming a volunteer expands that, and Pat’s story is a stellar example of how it can manifest. As she so aptly described, “These experiences have been the highlight of my retirement!”

Written by Rochelle Joseph. Come visit my personal animal blog at www.naturegirrrl.blogspot.com

Thank you to Pat Pilkington and Stephanie Adams for the photos