End of the road

Paris - Texas.
Everyone packs heat in Texas. Know why?
Fireants. Lil' Bastards is their rap name.
The season has ended for the Kelly Miller Circus with a BANG! The last week of the season was filled with suprises and excitement. An elephant/tiger zookeeper took several days of vacation off work (names will be withheld to prevent repercussions from a certain supervisor of her's that does not condone "circus style" training methods). We had a great time and and we were all sad to see her leave. Any "towner" that can survive a week on a mudshow with donikers, cold showers, daily rain and mud and dealing with our rowdy bunch must not be too soft!
The annual Kelly Miller Halloween Extravaganza kicked off a promise of "large cash prizes!" This turned out to be factual and lined the pockets of Casey and I well. Our show's two clowns, Steve and Ryan, dressed us in their makeup and we constructed some costumes. Performing the legendary 'sink gag' three times, I felt no envy for the clowns while Casey pummeled me with wrenches, hammers, plungers and any other objects within reach from the toolbox. First place was the reward, followed by Armando Loyal as Zorro riding in the tent on one of his horses, and Steve and Ryan taking third in an innovate design. Dressing as the animal department, Steve posed as Armando yelling at his groom Buckner (Ryan) to clean up a pile of shit (artfully constructed out of material atop a remote control car. Although the manure escaping disposal from the true shoveler were not portable, all enjoyed the humor of the situation.
Our last bit of excitment commenced on the final day of the season. As I have been raving about, Shonti's training has been progessing well. The last two shows displayed Shonti in every trick except the hind leg walks. It was great fun and smiles all around to see her success.
Thank you all for the compliments and I apologize for the delay in posts... I dislike running the blog! Hahaha. My motivation comes from the same that prevents me from adding certain friends on Facebook... a fear of death or worse, unemployment from the circus.
Pictures of the last few weeks will be posted in the next week.

Ten minutes of butterflies.

It has been great to be back in Missouri.
For several days my family and friends have been visiting, bringing me back to reminisce town life and my "pre-circus" days. Not for a moment though do I regret joining Casey's crew on the Kelly Miller Circus. I was conversing with the gentleman that helped me get a job at the car dealership and learned things could not be much worse in the automobile industry. To forego long details, there is no doubt in my mind I made the best decision to leave it all behind and pursue a dream.
To change subjects, the tiger act has taken a few jumps of improvement in the last week. To preface the events, I would first like to share a story my father told me. During his tenure as manager of Riddle's Elephant Sanctuary, there was never an easy or slow day when one is in charge of fifteen elephants, nearly half of which are mature males. However, no matter how hot the day or unending the work, he would also take a late afternoon break to witness one of the young calves chasing butterflies around her yard. There are a few moments in life that counter balance all the struggle and heartache we experience, which he described as his "Ten minutes of butterflies." I have had a few of those moments in my first year working with tigers, though none as strong as this afternoon when Shonti rolled over with the four adult tigers.

Upon my arrival on Kelly Miller, Shonti was seat & leash trained. The only trick she performed in the show was the backward shoulder stand, an action only performed by two other trainers in the past (Charly Bauman and Wade Burck). Skipping foward five months, she performs two additional tricks int he show - laying down/sitting up with the group and sliding under the adults as a comedy bit. Watching her progress everyday with her training and later observing its involvement in the show is very gratifying. I too have experienced my ten minutes of butterflies.

Family Times

It has been a great couple of days for me on the Kelly Miller Circus.

We finally returned to Missouri (my stomping grounds) and have spent the last few days around St. Louis. Although I am not homesick, it was great to see my family and a few friends that came out to see the show. In addition to bringing some great presents and food (it was like Christmas!) and some amazing food, we had a lot of fun hanging out at the circus lot for two days and a classic America's Own barbeque.

Friday night as we were leaving the show for dinner, Mr. North stopped me and complimented me on working the cats. Apparently he and Lucky Eddie had been in the audience as I practiced the tigers through the routine. Captain Johnny informed me he did not know that I was able to work the complete act and told me he was impressed with the work. I took this compliment with great pride and my family was proud as well. Several days later, they were able to watch me working the tigers for themselves. Practice went relatively well and I made it out of the cage without a scratch (as usual, but they all had their doubts!)

The season is coming to a close with less than two weeks remaining. Everyone is excited and ready to finish, though it has been a great, albeit wet, year.

My little sister and I

Four's Company

Tonight Natalie put Beau into the act, returning four dogs to the show after the passing of Dixie.

Beau has been with the group since last year but only worked a few shows. Natalie has trained him to work several different tricks and he is now a circus star in his own right.

In the meantime, everyone is excited for the season to end soon - only seventeen more days. Everyone has different plans that will take us apart and bring us together again.

The Cainan's will be residing at their home and tiger compound in Texas. The clowns will be staying in Hugo for the winter to prepare for next year's show after they take a trip to Steve's home to pick up props and such. I of course will be staying at Casey's as well to learn more circus skills and to care for the cats.

Hunting Wabbits... I mean Horses

Today was a beautiful day in Illinois, a nice break from the rain and cold.

Recently Armando purchased a new Percheron for the horse act and this sonuvagun is big! The guys were enjoying the nice weather and riding him in the field across from the lot. The tigers enjoyed as well, their predatory instincts kicking in as they went-a-huntin.'

A few pictures of the excitement. A more in depth blog tomorrow - promise.

Keep on Rollin

The circus continues on and I am back in business.
My computer cord failed -again- and I was without a computer for over a week. My apologizes.
To get back in the groove of things, here is a video of Shonti's progression with the rollover.

Circo Hermanos Vasquez

Where do circus folk spend their Saturday nights? At another circus!

Last night the majority of performers from Kelly Miller visited Circus Vasquez, a hispanic show. Armando and his wife Natalia were gracious enough to let me ride with them after rides and load up was finished. We missed the first few acts, but still made it in time to see a great show and some great acts.

At first glance driving to the lot and walking in the tent, a neat, clean and professional operation is the first thought that comes to mind. Once relaxed in the comfortable stadium seating packed to the brink, the energy and enthusiasm from both the performers and the audience are enthralling and infectious. There is no "march of death" and everyone is smiling enjoying their profession. I must admit I was a little lost on the clown gags of Pastelito and ringmaster direction (my Spanish is limited to three years of schooling and KM work crew education), though the off-color white guy jokes were still amusing. Some of the acts we saw included Russian Ekaterina Karmasova on the single trapeze, juggler Jose Alberto, plenty of beautiful showgirl dancers and a mixed animal act consisting of two horses, two Bactrian camels, a miniature pony and a zebra presented by Klaus Dieter of Germany.

After I was told by several people not to expect much from the cat act, I was not disappointed by the few amount of tricks performed by the three white tigers. Trained by Aldo Vasquez, there was a fire hoop, a few sit ups, a lay down, a mirror ball and what we will call a hind leg walk "in progess." The elephant act, presented by George Hanneford, included a spindel, tubs, over the garden wall and skipping.

Standing out among the animal acts, the horse riders were one of the most impressive events of the show. The Kamvarov Kozacs from Kyrgyztan can be described as acrobats on horses. The men and women flipping and sailing around their steeds resembled the rest of the show, very high speed and energetic.
We had a good time visiting with Armando's brother and Patsy's uncle after the show and stopped at the elephant compound to speak with George Hanneford for a few minutes. We were hoping to visit UniverSoul Circus tonight but our showtimes are about the same.

A few pictures of the show before I was told "No pictures allowed!" Seriously? And before I get any comments about this being a "family blog," I posted the last one for Mr. Wade Burck. Enjoy.

A day's work

After a day's worth of practice, the new leap frog routine is coming together well.
Several pointed out to me that, although I described it, the Shonti's 'crawl' under the adults was not in the first video. My apologies.
The trick was condensed in regards to the number of jumps like I explained earlier.

Back to the basics

Tiger Training 101
Ok, well I do not really know much about training tigers to teach anyone anything. But I learn a lot from Casey and cannot wait to train tigers myself one day. Every day I am allowed to go in the arena to practice makes all the hardwork pay off.
At the suggestion of renowned bear trainer Jimmy Hall, Casey did some adjustments to the leapfrog routine but continuing to use all five cats. It is difficult to explain but you can see in the video how everything plays out. This was the first attempt at the new trick and went rather well. Casey tells me Tora has never bounced over separated tigers in this manner, rather only a single cat, or multiple cats standing together. She is a quick learner and eager to do what she is told, gathering that she understands what is expected of her. Practicing this trick also helps with conditioning the other tigers in regards to their body positions and moving them to the necessary placement. Shonti is doing well with the "slide under," to our knowledge the only cat that performs the trick, first trained with another cat by Wade Burck.
Casey is talking of shortening the trick so that the act is not so long. No one ever complains that an act was too short and exciting. Apologies to any that might "fall asleep" watching.

Goodbye to a friend

Wednesday was a rough day for the Cainan family, now one less.

Dixie, one of the five American Eskimos was euthanized due to cancer. A moment of silence and thank you to all those best wishes for Natalie.