About

I’m Cathy, a Twin Cities editor, writer and nature enthusiast who started volunteering at the Minnesota Zoo in 2003. Since then, my enthusiasm for the zoo and its conservation mission has grown with each passing year. On the paid-employment front, I work an unconventional schedule that lets me spend four happy hours among the animals each Thursday, talking to zoo guests, answering questions and basically just doing what a docent does. I started this personal hobby blog in October 2009 after realizing most of my Facebook updates were zoo-related.

That November, I got my reward for volunteering 1,000 hours at the zoo: I got to feed Semo, the oldest dolphin in our pod (and, in his mid-40s, one of the oldest male dolphins in human care.). Semo provided my second blog entry and my peak experience in a place that has given me all kinds of good times.