Island volunteer finds her calling at the Palm Beach Zoo
Emily Leonard not only loves small cats but also big ones. She even says hello to them by name as she passes them en route to her volunteer job at the Palm Beach Zoo.
“They’re really just big pussycats.” she says.
She doesn’t work with these “pussycats,” but rather with the “fairly slow, non-lethal animals,' such as the flamingos and tortoises.
To the average person, flamingos look pretty much alike. They’re distinguished at the zoo by the numbered bands on their long legs. But Leonard knows many of them by name, and they know her by voice. As she approaches the flamingos — which, as babies, are not pink — in the lagoon, she lets out a trill.
“I try to mimic them but I’m no good at animal sounds or accents,” she admits.
The birds seem to disagree. A few of them, often her favorites — Benita, Francesca and Lucinda — come out to greet her. They flap their wings and trill a return greeting to her. And when she leaves, they follow her right out to the gate, hoping she’ll stay, or at least give them some food or treats.
Leonard also works with the Aldabra giant tortoises. She splashes water on them and gives them rubdowns. Yes, they can feel through their thick shells. And like the flamingos, some also recognize Leonard, sort of. Unlike the flamingos, the lumbering giants don’t run over to her.
They do respond, however, when she does to them what they love best: scratching and massaging their backs. “They’re extremely tactile and like to be touched by us,” she said, as she massaged one described as “middle-aged” — at 95.
When she starts massaging them, “They stick their heads and feet out, indicating they’d like even more areas than just their back shells rubbed.”
Leonard and her consultant husband, Richard, leave their island home three days a week to go to the 23-acre Palm Beach Zoo in West Palm Beach, which attracts almost a half a million visitors a year.
Mike Terrell, curator of Animal Services, says it’s the big cats who are the most popular. “But people like the tortoises because they can get close to them,” he explained. And, he added, they like the flamingos “because they’re iconic to Florida.”
Even before Leonard moved to Florida three years ago, she did volunteer work with animals. Indeed, it was her volunteer work at the ASPCA that led to her finding her own two cats.
While there, she chose a brother and sister duo who are half Siamese and half domestic shorthair. She was attracted to them because they were “confident.” She explained that “there’s nothing worse than a scaredy cat.” One of them, Henny, she calls a “love bug.” The other is called Pita, not after the bread, but because as a kitten, his name spelled out ''pain in the ***."
As much as she loves her own animals, she loves those at the zoo as well. And the zoo appreciates her.
“We need more Emilys,” said Terrell, as he pitched the need for more dedicated volunteers. They work at least four hours a week, and at the beginning, they only handle the tamer animals, “none of which here are going to move too fast.”
“Most people don’t realize that all the animals at the zoo have their own distinctive personalities and preferences,” Leonard said. "Many of them also have their favorite people, and sometimes it’s me."
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach volunteer has two cats of her own
