Jungle Larry and the Iguana

Lest anyone get the idea that I have no personal contact with exotic, foreign animals, I present this to dispel that notion.

-Preface-

For those under 50 or who did not grow up in northeast Ohio, a bit of background information is needed. Jungle Larry, aka. Dr. Lawrence Tetzlaff, was a naturalist, conservationist, animal trainer and educator. Originally from Michigan, he and his wife, Safari Jane established a small zoo at Chippewa Lake Park in Medina where he would teach people about creatures of the wild. Although he had become primarily a big cat trainer, his background was in reptiles. He was combat deferred in WWII because a snake bite as a teen left him in a leg brace. He instead worked at an Army facility in Florida milking snakes to make anti-venom for our troops serving in stinking, godforsakin,reptile infested swampland. Like Indonesia.

His good friend, Ron Penfound, had a daytime children's TV show called Capt. Penny's Noon Show and Larry and Jane appeared over 800 times on the show between Three Stooges films. He would also travel to area schools teaching the kids about animals. The one thing he always stressed was: don't bother the animals! Unlike later TV personalities who preferred to poke them with a stick to see if they were grumpy. Which of course they weren't until they were poked with a stick.

Larry and Jane later moved their operation to Cedar Point where the show had become a major attraction. Eventually they settled in Florida with their own zoological park. Larry passed away a few years ago, Safari Jane retired but their son David still carries on the tradition.

-The Iguana-

One of the requirements for 9th grade biology students at Eastview Jr. High was to enter the annual science fair with a project assigned by the teacher, Mr. Morse who picked topics out of a hat. Mine was "Behavioral Thermal Regulation in Reptiles" What!?!? Well, the first thing to do was to get a reptile. Strangely, you could usually buy some kind of lizard at Woolworth's except when it came time for me to acquire one, they were sold out. My mother recommended that I call Jungle Larry. Wow, calling Jungle Larry! Pretty intimidating stuff. Well, Larry was nice enough to offer to loan me an iguana and we drove over to his house in Medina where he had quite a menagerie in his garage. But first I had to listen to his lecture on the proper care of animals.

Back home with the beast, we proceded to torment this poor creature with all manner of "scientific experimentation" under the tutelage of Mr. Morse. We subjected it to extreme temperature fluctuations, injected it with epinephrine, painted it with liquid crystals and generally did things that Jungle Larry would of had a fit about.

Mercifully, the torture ended. It was time to take "Iggy" back to Larry. We had him in a large dog crate in the basement and when I opened the door to put him in a smaller box for travel, enough was enough and he flew out of the cage and up under the foundation of the house. The only thing visible was his tail dangling out from behind a floor joist and nothing could get him down. He was stuck. Left food out for him and tugged on his tail and even had Dominick try moving the joist. Nothing worked. Eventually Iggy died stuck up there with just his poor tail hanging down. Oh my God! What was Jungle Larry going to say! Thankfully, my mother did me a huge favor and she called Safari Jane, sort of mom to mom, to tell the sad tale of the dangling, dead tail and I received a lecture on the proper care of animals.....again.

Iggy's tail hung there for years. I was more determined than ever to not bother the animals and Jungle Larry still remains a very fond memory of my youth.

-The Lesson Learned-

For all you kids at home, behavioral thermal regulation is why cold blooded animals, like iguanas, lie in the sun during the day. Seems like Mr. Morse could have saved a lot of trouble. And.....nothing likes to be poked with a stick!

It might also be appropriate here to mention the classic morality lessons from Capt. Penny:
About the 3 Stooges: "We all laugh at the things they do but we don't do those things they do"
And at the end of every show: "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom"