All of the transitions in the show are very quick, and there is little to no time to think about what comes next. We ran through the show many times, first without animals, and then with animals. With each repetition, the routine became easier and easier until now, it seems second-nature.

We also had onstage parts to learn as well with the animals. Being the new guy, my parts were fairly easy. I was given animals that don't particularly depend on me to do their behavior. Sarah, being a more experienced trainer than I, was given animals that were a little trickier (and some of them were also new to their own behaviors), and she has had to work very hard on her spots in the show.

But each day sees some improvement and, with 4 or 5 shows a day, we will have plenty of opportunities to polish our routines and learn from our mistakes.

Five shows was difficult for us on our very first day performing. It was even more difficult for the animals. As the day wore on, the animals became more and more tired and more and more distracted.

It felt good to be performing in front of an audience again. I was nervous though. It's a whole different feeling working with and being dependent on animals. But we made it through our first day without any major incidents...

Except one...

In the show, Alex flies a short distance from one ledge to the other. Usually, he makes the flight with no problem. Usually.

On opening day, during our third show, it was a little windier than usual. Alex had difficulty navigating his way to his destination ledge and, instead, wound up flying up over the back of our outdoor theatre and into the wooded area behind. We quickly finished our show and then spread out into the park to try and locate him.

Our manager, Trish, enlisted the aid of our Mealy Amazon Parrot, Stevie, to help find Alex. When Alex, high up in a tree, heard Stevie, he mimicked the sounds, and Trish was able to locate him and retrieve him.

This wasn't the first time Alex had flown away. Last season, he flew away three different times, and on each occasion, they were able to find him and bring him home (although once he was gone for three days). Hopefully, we won't lose Alex any other times this season. We try to monitor the wind and any other distractions that may send him off course. He is a part of our family and we are all very fond of him, and losing him would be heart wrenching.

Apparently he was not happy with what he saw. Word came to us that he was very upset with the condition and cleanliness of the theme park and even fired some people.

Naturally, the powers-that-be at Busch Gardens were very nervous about his impending visit, and a full-scale operation was set into motion to refurbish and clean and organize every aspect of our theme park.

Everything had to be cleaned, painted, dusted, scrubbed, repaired, rust-free, organized, stowed, labeled... I'd never seen so many people swarming about the park as I did the days preceding August Busch's visit. The park general manager, Donnie Mills, even stopped by to see us, and you could sense his nervousness and concern.

Our facility for Pet Shenanigans is thirty years old and has never been refurbished. Before our show moved in last year, the Bird Show made its home there. The walls are stained. The floors are stained. Bare pipes and duct work are visible. The place just looks dirty. We dropped all of our training and rehearsing and did what we could to clean and organize, but we still had to see to the caretaking of our animals. There were only so many hours in the day.

In addition, it was our prediction that August Busch wouldn't even actually come and look at our facility.

After a frenzy of activity, people working around the clock to help the park live up to its award-winning reputation of "Most Beautiful Park" (but mostly, I think, in fear of Mr. Busch's reaction), the day of August Busch's inspection arrived.

He was due to arrive and begin his park tour around 8 o'clock in the morning. It was early afternoon before he actually arrived. And when he did arrive, he had lunch, did a quick stroll through the park, and then left.

That was it. He barely looked at anything. Everyone had gone berserk preparing the park for his visit, and then he came and went before we even knew he was there. He never set foot anywhere near Pet Shenanigans.

My theory is that he visits one of his parks and causes an uproar that gets all of the other parks quaking. Then he knows that these other parks are going to do everything in their power to make things right without him even having to check it out. And it worked.

With 5 shows on Fridays and Saturdays and 4 shows the rest of the week, we are getting plenty of opportunities to get comfortable with the shows. We are also discovering whole new challenges.

We still have all of our animal caretaking chores to accomplish, but now we have to get them done between our shows. And some of our animals are new to performing, like Billy (pictured to the left) and suddenly having an audience is distracting them from behaviors they were doing well before.

Attendance in the park has been mediocre. The weather has not been cooperative. It has rained quite a bit. As a result, we have not had the best audiences. With 4 or 5 shows a day, sometimes we may have as little as 50, 20, or even less people in our audience. It is difficult for us and especially for the animals to do so many shows, especially when the crowds don't warrant it.

After April 3rd, the park drops down to just 3-day weekends for a month and a half until Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer tourist season.