Q & A from Beth Randall

Beth Randall — owner of Critter Camp Exotic Pet Sanctuary — responded to my request for questions, posing six of them to me.

 

(BTW, Beth is a major William Shatner fan–she has named one of her hedgehogs Quilliam Shatner. The past two years for her birthday, her kids have bought her live virtual conversations with Shatner, and it’s pretty apparent that BOTH parties had the time of their lives.)

 

I donate to Critter Camp several times a year and I vote for this nonprofit every chance I get, whenever they’re in the running for grants and goodies from animal-centric organizations, businesses and corporations. Taking care of critters is a full-time, expensive job, so every bit of help you can offer to help her help animals is very much appreciated!!!

 

Beth asked the following questions:

 

Read any good books? Oh, my gosh! I usually read at least one book a week. This time of year, and during COVID lockdown, I’ve read up to three books a week.  I’m a reading fool.

 

The ones I’ve read this year alone include A LOTUS GROWS IN THE MUD by Goldie Hawn, A PROMISED LAND by Barack Obama, Kindness and Wonder; Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More than Ever), Disloyal by Michael Cohen, Where the Blind Horse Sings by Kathy Stevens, Officer Clemmons: A Memoir by Dr. Francois S. Clemmons, Top Surgery: Unbound by Drake Cameron Sterling, Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump, Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable and What Happens Next by Spencer Critchley, Once a Girl, Always a Boy by Jo Ivester, Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean, The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power,  Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride, The Last Camel Charge: the Untold Story of America’s Desert Military Experiment by Forrest Bryant Johnson, and Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O’Brien.

 

So, yeah… I’ve lived a thousand different lives, because I read as one possessed!

 

Had any good food? Ha! You’ll laugh!  During COVID lockdown, I discovered a frozen meal that I just LOVE!  It’s by DEVOUR, and it’s called Chicken Cordon Bleu Mac and Cheese.  I add a little bit of sharp cheddar cheese to it. I get it at Albertson’s. If you can’t find in in your grocery store, Amazon has it. When it’s on sale (which is often) you can get two for $6.  Otherwise, it’s usually $4.99 each. You can also find the recipe online and make it yourself, and for a whole lot less, I suspect.

 

Met any interesting people? Not this year. I’ve been locked down in isolation due to COVID since mid-February.

 

But I’ve met (in person) a lot of interesting people during my lifetime–among them Carolyn and DeForest Kelley, the Kelleys’ next door neighbor Don Catherwood, Baywatch, Eddie Dodd and Parker Lewis Can’t Lose writers and producers (three of whom–Amy Lippman, Chris Keyser and PK Simonds– went on to earn Emmys later in life for script writing: I earned letters of recommendation from them, which I cherish!), Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Harve Bennett, Terry Rioux (DeForest Kelley’s biographer), Mark Lenard, Leonard Nimoy, Grace Lee Whitney, Wil Wheaton, Patrick Stewart, Rick Berman, Hal Holbrook, an ancient Acadian gentleman in Louisiana, Belton Mouras, Ted Crail (author of APETALK AND WHALESPEAK, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated book; he was Creative Services Director the the Animal Protection Institute when I worked there in the 1980’s and I have a remarkable letter of recommendation from him that I cherish: I’ll end this blog post with it if I remember!!!), Dian Fossey, Jean- Michel Cousteau, Pat Derby, Tippi Hedren, Anjelica Huston, Ed Begley, Betty White, Ed Asner, Mike Farrell, Earl Holliman, Nancy Graf, Scott Vorhees, Ralph Helfer, Jim Westbrook (my unofficial “agent”!), Jesse Richards, Mary Jane Cooper and her daughters Penny and Judi, author Chris Bailey; an elderly survivor from a WWII naval vessel sinking (only eight people survived being in the water for three days before rescue; he was one of them), Dr. Alan Meenan (I took a live, in person Bible study with him, THE WORD IS OUT, with him for three years: I adore him!), teachers Alpha Rossetti, Walter Dobbs and Todd Oleson, Lisa Twining, Ben Taylor, Cheryl Young, voice actor Nigel Neale, and just sooo many more!  These are just the ones off the top of my head. If I can think of any more, I’ll come back and add to this list.

 

I have a lot of virtual friends who are fascinating and fun, too: Helen Schofield, Mike and Denise Okuda, Michael Jan Friedman, Dayton Ward, Hank Zimmerman, Sonia and Gilberto Morales, you (Beth Randall)!!! … oh gosh, there are just too many to list here. I have to to stop somewhere, or I’ll never finish!

 

Watched good shows?   I don’t watch TV as a general rule; haven’t for decades.  I’m a reader and writer in my spare time, not a TV watcher.  I have Amazon Prime, so I catch some stuff, but I also have a small library of some of my favorite movies and TV series that I like revisiting from time to time: Les Miserables, Bobby, The Music Man (with Robert Preston), Amazing Grace, and lots of De’s movies, Star Trek TOS (remastered), GLEE…

 

 Cleaned the house? Oh, yeah!  When I remodeled three rooms (out of four) in July and August I cleaned completely, and I’ve been keeping it up since then, now that my place looks lovely when it’s clean. It always looked so crappy before, even when clean, that I didn’t clean as often as I should. Now I’m a very happy unpaid Merry Maid (Merry Man)?.

 

Gardened? Oh heck no! That’s my sister’s bailiwick. She loves to mow and garden. I love to look at and admire her gardens. I’m the fauna wrangler here; she’s the flora wrangler.

 

Have any ideas on how to make anything better? Oh, yeah!  If I ruled the world, it would be a mix of  If’n I Was God, If I Ruled the World, Camelot, The Impossible Dream, and If I Could Talk to the Animals. 

 

But since I don’t rule the world, I’ve settled for, “Be kinder than you think you need to be. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle you know nothing about” and “If you see someone without a smile, leave them with one of yours.”

 

#

 

And now… here’s that letter of recommendation from Ted Crail that I promised you above. Ted left me with this life-long smile…  (Alas, he passed away about five years ag0.)

 

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Kris Smith is an unusually adept and skillful person—skillful in general—with a great and particular talent for writing, phrase-making, and taking part in many and varied aspects of public persuasion.

At the Animal Protection Institute, where I serve as public relations counsel and where the need was often felt for these particular qualities, she had an excellent career, which she gave up simply through a yearning to be back in the Pacific Northwest, her point of origin.

This was API’s loss. She took part in nearly all major campaigns of the Institute. She worked vigorously and well with fellow staff members but also with many other persons, friend and foe, who had business with the Institute, and she was a uniformly effective instructor, counselor, negotiator wherever and whenever these talents came into play.

She is outspoken but tactful; very amiable and cheerful in her day to day attitudes. She is vigorous and determined when the assignment requires it. She has a great devotion to accuracy and does not leave a trail of error. Her ability with language is very special and could be utilized far beyond the claims made upon her at the Institute, where counseling and research and negotiation—as well as frequent public appearances as a teacher-educator in the humane field—took much of her time.

She is entirely capable of planning and writing anything from a slogan to a book; has experience in publicity and advertising (and is proficient in both) and would prove an asset to any business or institute requiring all or any of these skills.

In addition to her many fine qualities as a co-worker, she is a well-rounded, well-read, highly-developed personality who can be affable and playful—and as utterly persistent and dedicated as may be needed.

I can recommend her without qualifications and wouldn’t hesitate to hire her for appropriate work in the business, humane, public relations or advertising fields where she has a lively feel for what needs to be done and how to do it. She is a self-starter and will never be idle for a moment.

Most sincerely,

Ted Crail

(Pulitzer Prize Nominee for APETALK AND WHALESPEAK)

Public Relations Counsel

The Animal Protection Institute