Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
3 comments:
"Cubby the Comedy Cat" One of the 15 cats sold to Paul Kelly and Jules when he left the Zoo in 1956. Note no track for the ball, but she worked on a level concrete floor. I've heard about several people who worked her and she had a tough reputation. Can't say if that's a reflection on her or the trainer.
Jim,
I should think the ball was very heavy, not unlike an "elephant ball." That "ring" to Jules left looks like something the ball was rolled into, so that it stopped. Not that is matters, but it looks like "she" used to be a "he."
Wade
You might be right about Cubby's gender. Nobody around to ask now. I might have had the ball in my collection of show memorabilia. (I kept a few interesting props from each show after they were ended.) The ball was the size pictured, fairly heavy, and Jules used it with a track made of parallel pieces of hose stretched between two pedestals for a tiger. As to the ring, you may be right. I never in saw a film of the cat working. I had two free ball-rolling sea lions that climbed on balls rested in rings. They roll out of the rings and across the stage until they got the signal they were finished. Maybe Cubby rolled around until he/she got an "all right".
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