In December of 2006, I started looking for a job. I registered with the usual internet resources, but when I went to choose my search parameters, I found that the jobs for which I was most qualified were ones in which I had absolutely no interest. Spending a year taking pictures, apparently, didn't make the prospect of sitting in a cube processing words and answering phones seem at all enticing to me. I started looking at Craig's List every day. My favorite job categories were Misc. and Part Time. I though maybe I could find an evening job that would still leave my days open for photography. One day in early January 2007, I found a listing for a night security person at the Wildlife WayStation, five days a week from 5:00 p.m. until Midnight. I remembered taking a tour of the WayStation a few years ago as the guest of a friend. It seemed like it might be an interesting place to work, so I sent an e-mail response with my resume attached. I received a call the next day and was asked to come in and talk to the General Manager about the job. When I arrived at the WayStation for the interview, I was told that the General Manager was in a meeting but that he would be with me soon. Sometime later a woman strode out of the office saying, as she hurried out the door, that she was the one who had kept the G.M. from being able to see me when I arrived. I found out later that I had just had my first encounter with Martine Colette, the founder of the Wildlife WayStation. The meeting with the General Manager was brief and to the point. He already had my resume from the e-mail that I had sent, but I had also brought along a portfolio of pictures that I had taken of animals at the Los Angeles Zoo. I answered a few questions, I showed him my portfolio and he said, "Okay, let's give it a try." I was hired. I left with a handful of papers to fill out and sign, including information about the hazards of working with animals. I had no idea what I was in for, no idea at all. All I knew at that point was that I was about to become night watchperson for a wildlife sanctuary that housed some forty-six chimps, and forty-eight lions, not to mention the bears, tigers, exotic birds, wolves and I didn't know what else.