Dream Job Comes True for 1 Man
Brutus the iguana closed its eyes and stretched its scaly chin upward--as if to beg for more of Travis Whitcher’s gentle pats on its head.
“I didn’t get into animals until I worked here,” said Whitcher, 22, who works and volunteers for Wildlife on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that travels to schools and libraries to teach children about all types of wild creatures from guinea pigs to boa constrictors.
Whitcher began working for Wildlife on Wheels nearly three years ago through a program at Tierra del Sol, a nonprofit agency that provides learning and training for adults with physical and developmental disabilities.
Working on his own at a job has been Travis’ dream, said Laurie Temple, a manager at Tierra del Sol. “We’ve worked on making that dream come true.”
Whitcher, who is developmentally disabled and has lived in foster homes nearly all his life, rakes the stables, cleans the bird cages and sweeps the floors. He used to work three mornings a week for $6.25 an hour.
But last fall, when Wildlife on Wheels was forced to cut his hours to just one morning a week, he chose to stay on a second morning for free. The cuts were needed so more food could be purchased for the animals.
“I said, ‘If [my layoff is] good for the animals, then it’s OK,’ ” Whitcher said. “The animals come first.”
At first, Whitcher was afraid the animals and reptiles would bite him, so he would only sweep the floors and dust the cobwebs, said Susie Decker, a manager with Wildlife on Wheels. But that changed over time.
“He’s an amazing young man,” she said. “He has evolved from a shy and timid person into someone who is knowledgeable and witty.”
On a recent day, he checked in on caged emperor scorpions, hissing cockroaches and a red-legged tarantula. “He makes that noise,” Whitcher said of a whooshing sound coming from a Savannah monitor lizard. “But he’s gentle.”
When a light rain started to fall, he knew where to look for a blanket for Casper the goat. Whitcher laid the blanket on the floor in a shed to encourage Casper to come in.
“He’s such a joy to have around,” Decker said of Whitcher. “He’s a valued member of the family here.”
Wildlife on Wheels joined Tierra del Sol--which has sites in Sunland, Van Nuys and Claremont--three years ago to help people with disabilities learn to help themselves. Each week about two dozen clients from Tierra del Sol work on the compound in Sunland in a program aimed at moving adults into the working world.
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Travis’ close proximity to the animals has taught him responsibility and boosted his confidence.
“The thing about snake bites is don’t hyperventilate,” he said. “It just rushes venom into the bloodstream. You’ve got to stay calm.”
The experience has also taught Whitcher to think quickly on his feet. On a recent morning, an African serval cat named Teliah escaped her cage and started attacking a red-tail hawk flying loose in a gated arena.
“Get a blanket! Get a blanket!,” Fernando Salgado, one of the compound’s two animal keepers, yelled to Whitcher.
As Salgado frantically tried to pull the cat off the bird, Whitcher grabbed a blanket, which Salgado used to subdue the bird. Then he shooed the cat back into her cage.
With the bird safe and the caged Teliah licking her chops at what might have been, Whitcher--his brow wet from sweat--took a deep breath.
“That was a close one,” he said. “That’s never happened before.”
Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please send suggestions on prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to valley.news@latimes.com.
