Reptiles at Risk

Montreal...

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 26, 2007 at 4:40 PM

We did two shows in the Chatueguay library today, which is a really new, gorgeous building. Both shows were for small day camps, but were open to the general public as well. I find I am getting much more comfortable doing French shows now, and Sarah B. is as happy as she can be! We’ve added some a species to our talks, even though we don’t have any specimens to show for it. The Northern Brown (or Dekay’s) Snake is of special mention around the island of Montreal, as it is pretty much the only place to find this small, brown snake in Quebec.

The next (and final show) of the day was at Super Camp, the place where I had been an instructor for four years. I walked into the gym to announce the show, and got mobbed by kids (and instructors). Whorn (the camp director) had forgotten that the show was that day, so there was a mad scramble to organize the choices period. We ended up with about 60 kids, and did the show outside in the circle in front of camp. After the show, we were presented with “GPS” yellow camp shirts (think VERY neon ), as a thank you.

After super camp, we had dinner at my grandmother’s place, which we all really enjoyed. We had St. Hubert chicken, and all the non-Quebecers agreed that it was great! After that, we were all stuffed, but managed to find room for strawberry ice cream, with fresh strwberries. We had fun talking over dinner, and Nana adopted Jeff as a grandson for the day! She was curious to see the animals, as she’s used to taking care of my reptiles when I’m away on vacation (I have a really cool Nana).

After dinner, we spent the night at an old employee of Jeff’s, in downtown Montreal, which was interesting in itself. Our “urban camping” included traffic sounds and brick walls instead of crickets and trees. We went up to Dan’s apartment to brush our teeth, and Sarah managed to get over her fear of bugs with lots of legs enough to touch the pet giant millipede (named Fluffy) that Dan owns.

Sarah Jane