Fort Worth zookeeper achieved dream to work with animals. This surgery helped her continue
Angie Holmes discovered her dream of being a zookeeper when she was only 8 years old, but when she shared her dream with others they didn’t seem to quite understand.
“When I told people when I was a kid that I wanted to be a zookeeper, they would look at me like I said I wanted to be a fairy princess,” Holmes told the Star-Telegram.
She would later be asked regularly about how much it paid or if her dream job would mean moving away from her family, but the doubts and questions didn’t stop her. Nothing would. She got an internship at the Pittsburgh Zoo, where she’d been volunteering since she was 12, and got her first experience working with both primates and big cats.
So when in 2008, Holmes packed up her things, hopped in her Toyota Corolla and drove with her parents from Pittsburgh to Fort Worth for her first paying job as a zookeeper, it was the realization of that lifelong dream. She’s been working with the western lowland gorillas ever since.
When she started having trouble with her right arm and hand about five years ago, though, it did bring some uncertainty to her future working with the gorillas at the Fort Worth Zoo, she said. She would get a tingling in her right hand, then later up her arm to her elbow, like it was falling asleep. It made it hard, in some cases impossible, for Holmes to lift heavy objects or use tools for the small maintenance around the gorillas’ home. And when she needed to scrub floors, her right arm would usually have fallen asleep when she was done.
“Thankfully we have a great team down at the World of Primates,” Holmes said. “Anything I was struggling with, or if I was having a difficult day, there was always someone there to help me out. I wanted to get this taken care of so I could be there 100% for the animals and my coworkers.”
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When Holmes decided it was time to get her hand and arm checked out, she found out she had carpal tunnel syndrome and, on top of that, the less widely known cubital tunnel syndrome. The two conditions are similar, both involving problems with nerves that cause numbness, tingling and shooting pain. Carpal tunnel is in the wrist, and cubital tunnel is in the elbow.
Holmes told the Star-Telegram she knew she had to get something done or it could have negative impacts on her career in the long term. She went to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, where she was told surgery was the solution.
“If I didn’t have the surgery it would impact both my relationship with my coworkers and my animals,” Holmes said. “I would have to look at other avenues.”
Holmes’ day is filled with work she said is rewarding, but is also demanding. She starts her day in the morning, bringing food and enrichment items, like a puzzle or something that requires the gorillas to use tools, to the primates and cleaning their yard. When they’re done with that, the seven gorillas — Gracie, Winifred, Amani, Elmo, Ramses, Gus and Bruno — go out to their enclosure, where guests at the zoo can see them.
While they’re outside enjoying the attention, Holmes gets to work cleaning their living space. There’s a lot of washing, scrubbing and lifting involved. She’ll move heavy bales of hay around their home and relocate hefty food boxes before the gorillas come back in for a lunch of root vegetables, including yams and carrots, and sometimes more enrichment. After that, it’s back to physical labor for Holmes and the other zookeepers: more cleaning and getting the sleeping area ready with nesting materials.
“People have misconceptions of what working with animals is really like,” Holmes said. “A lot of people think it’s all cuddly and fluffy. A lot of times it’s hauling heavy things and working with hammers.”
All of that became more and more difficult to do with the numbness and pain in her right arm and hand, Holmes said. Her interactions with the gorillas aren’t always physically demanding, but they can be. And when her arm was giving her trouble, Holmes had to rely on coworkers to do things she couldn’t. Over time, it was becoming less sustainable.
Doctors make Holmes nervous, she said, and surgery wasn’t a pleasant thought, either, but she knew something had to be done.
“I knew if I let it go too long, I would be looking at that impacting my coworkers and my animals,” Holmes said. “It might have changed my future.”
Dr. Timothy Niacaris, an orthopedic hand surgeon at Texas Health Harris, put her mind at ease, Holmes said. He was transparent and clearly communicated what the surgery would be like and what his expectations were, and she said he took time to answer questions, listen to her concerns and understand what she needed out of the operation.
In the end, Holmes said the surgery was done with a simple incision at her wrist. From there, Niacaris and his team at the hospital were able to operate and relieve both conditions. It’s been life changing, and may be a part of what allows Holmes to keep doing the job she loves
“I’m back to work with no restrictions, no issues with numbness or tingling or strength in my hand, which is important when you take care of rather large animals,” Holmes said.
She said overcoming carpal and cubital tunnel took a lot of the same things it took to realize her dream of being a zookeeper: courage and faith in herself.
Holmes says anybody who wants to pursue a career as a zookeeper has to have those two things. It’s what she tells children (or, if the children are too shy to ask, their parents) who want to be zookeepers when they grow up: Know what a zookeeper really does, find ways to volunteer and get experience when you’re young, have confidence in yourself and don’t give up. And going to college and getting a degree in science, like Holmes did, can go a long way to helping realize that dream, too.
