Sherry Lucas

A zoo volunteer shares her diary of 12 years working in the World of Primates at the Houston Zoo. She helped raise three orangutan babies and a baby siamang gibbon, and was loved, hugged, and peed on by all four. When she wasn't helping with the babies, she helped clean orangutan cages and continues to do so. In this book she shares her experience learning about the orangutans; watching their interactions with each other, the keepers, other volunteers, and vet staff. Orangutan means "person of the forest" and that's how she thinks about her orange ape buddies. They are her friends. This diary lets you share her experiences as a zoo volunteer; the best non-paying job in the world according to her.

Sherry Lucas is a registered nurse, mother, and grandmother. She has been a Houston Zoo general volunteer since 1997, and considers it the best non-paying job in the world. During her first year as a volunteer she worked with large mammals. She switched to primates in 1998 when she became a caregiver for the first baby orangutan born at the zoo. She has helped raise four orangutan babies and a siamang gibbon. When not working with the babies, Sherry does ＂housekeeping＂ as a keeper aide in the orangutan night house, and occasionally in other primate areas. She also enjoys helping at special events at the zoo. When she’s not at the zoo, she works part time as a home health nurse. She is also president of North American Indian Ministries, a non-profit she started in 2004, training and leading mission teams to an Indian Reservation in South Dakota. According to Sherry, she is blessed with a wonderful family, terrific friends, very good health, and thoroughly enjoys her busy life.