Dan the Animal Man

We met Dan the Animal Man through our homeschooling co-op over four years ago and can't say enough great things about him, his family, or their ministry.  Every intrinsic detail of the design of each and every creature points to a loving Creator.   His collection of wild and unique animals gives testimony of God's handiwork.  His generous family even hosted our co-op's year-end celebration / awards ceremony during our our first year in co-op, and we were amazed by all the animals they keep, the habitats they have created for their animals, and how they all live together in harmony.  He and his wife are brilliant zoologists, dynamic presenters, and extremely interesting educators.  Learn more about their ministry here.

So, when a friend on our son's basketball team invited our kids to his wild animal themed birthday party this afternoon featuring Dan the Animal Man, we knew they simply couldn't miss it.  Dan brought the following four animals to the party and shared dozens of interesting facts about each:

• Maddie the Lemur (named after the movie, Madagascar).
• Barb, the 55 pound African porcupine who can supposedly take down a wild lion
• A large alligator who was in hibernation which really amused me.  How an alligator's brain can go into "sleep" or "energy saver" mode similar to laptops and other digital devices for several months is amazing to me,  especially with all those kids jabbering around him, poking, rubbing, and prodding him.
• A friendly owl whose names the kids could not remember.

My husband took a few pics with his phone which I tried to compile into scrapbook pages for the kids' memory books.