Call Sign November 2010 - Page 24 - Is it a Good Life???

It was an unusually warm morning on that day in July 2009 when I decided to take my grandson and two young foster children who live nearby to Whipsnade Zoo. I had packed a picnic lunch, travel blankets and small chairs into the car that would make us self sufficient as we toured the spacious zoo that overlooks Dunstable Downs. Whipsnade Zoo is one of the best laid-out zoos so far as animal comfort goes, with acres of grass enclosures for the animals to run, walk and relax - just as they would in the wild. There are many animals available for children to touch and mix with, so they can learn much more about them. On arrival, we paid to take the car into the zoo as it’s rather a long walk to cover all exhibits. There’s a free double-decker bus service that runs around the perimeter roads giving a good view and also a train that covers most of the zoo, for which you can buy a ticket while sitting back and pretending you are on safari in some far off land. After seeing the new cheetah enclosure, rhinos, elephants, sea lions, penguins, lions and chimpanzees we decided to sit on the grass near the flamingo lake and have our picnic, after which we decided to drive through the deer sanctuary. As we drove through the tranquil and mainly empty enclosure, we spied some large black crows swooping down like spitfires in a dogfight. The target for these evil birds? We soon spotted a day-old baby deer frightened and lost, the herd had moved to the other end of the pasture and the youngster had been forgotten. There are notices informing you not to get out of your car in the enclosure, but I could not bear to see the young fellow being murdered by the crows. So I jumped out of the car and ran across the grass. Even as I homed in on the deer, the crows were still intent on killing their prey. I scooped the baby deer up in my arms and fended off the still attacking crows. The young victim could be felt trembling against my skin. I could see that though the children were taken by the cute young creature, they were mentally upset by the bird attack. So now it was off to pass on our patient onto the zookeepers where we passed him to one of the female keepers. The following day at the request of the children, I phoned the zoo and apologised for leaving my car in the enclosure and enquired after the health of our new friend. The man I spoke to was friendly and on hearing of the children’s concern, said that when the children returned, they should seek him out and he’d reward them. And Hackney Council... It was at this time that the Hackney Borough Council decided that they wanted me to have a CRB check; I informed them that I already possessed one, which was lodged with the PCO as our job includes transporting lone children. But typical of Hackney Council, they had to waste more taxpayer’s funds by having their own CRB completed. I completed the paper work and submitted it to the Council at the beginning of August 2009 and waited... and waited! During this time I was in touch with a gentleman at Whipsnade by the name of Les, he kept enquiring when I was going to bring the children for their return visit. I was a bit embarrassed as I kept telling him the truth that I was waiting for Hackney Council’s approval after they had received the return of the CRB check. By February 2010 I was fuming with the CRB people as I was still waiting. So I phoned, only to be told that Hackney Council had not sent the request until 28 November, 2010 and it had now been returned to them from the police, requesting that if I was going to be the children’s foster parent, I would want them to stay with me all of the time. I explained that I didn’t want the children to stay with me, I only took them on occasional days out to give the real foster parents a break. Of course, it was once again a social worker incapable of doing her job correctly that was the problem. Hackney Council are putting unqualified people in jobs they should not even have been considered for in the first place. This is how children are put at risk and into danger and why we come to hear of their tragic deaths. I’m just not knocking Social Workers -	During a visit to Whipsnade \|Zoo, Tom Whitbread asks the question... Is it a Good Life???
	*The children feed the elephants*
	*Little and Large!*
	my eldest daughter is one in Nottinghamshire, but she had to do years of training including a university course. Eventually I got the CRB check returned from the council in April 2010 along with my wife’s, who had gone through the same problems. Now I had the problem of matching up the children’s school breaks and holidays as they went to different schools and had different holiday dates. Les at Whipsnade Zoo was very patient and we eventually settled on 1st September 2010 - it had taken just over a year to arrange the visit. I’m glad that I do not have to deal with Hackney Council when we try to realise a Dial-a-Dream for a terminally ill child, as our time scale is sometimes down to months or even weeks. On the day, we arrived at Whipsnade, we paid our entrance fee and parked inside the zoo. Les came out to meet and greet us and to explain he had made up an itinerary that covered most of the day. He ushered us into his four-wheeled drive vehicle and drove us around the zoo pointing out the new attractions and ventures being undertaken to enhance the visitor’s day out. This pleased me no end as it left me free to engage in my hobby of taking photographs, that is when I am in my element! Les then stopped the vehicle and we alighted to enter a building that I had never ventured into before, in fact on my many visits I never even knew it was there! This was the reptile’s home; the children were allotted a keeper and taken to feed the snakes with dead mice. Although I took some photos, I was far from at ease near the snakes. In fact I have a serious fear of them, I cannot even watch them on the television. Then it was on to feed the turtles - boy can they get vicious – followed by the small crocodiles – also fed dead rats from the end of a broom handle. Now I remember why I did not go into the ponds and lakes in Australia! During this time, the children were taken into a classroom where they were allowed to handle stick insects, large spiders and various creepy crawlies before going on to my highlight of the day, the Meerkat enclosure - my favourite zoo animals. The children were given a selection of worms and other food to give them while my camera was capturing the moment! Not the market.com...??? It was then I heard the crowd outside the enclosure saying look at the photographer, which I thought very strange as they were here to see the meerkats. Surely they had seen someone taking photographs before? I then realised what the excitement was; as I knelt down a meerkat had climbed up my camera rucksack and was sitting on my shoulder trying to look into the viewfinder. I quickly turned the camera around to aim towards my shoulder and fired of a few random shots and was lucky to get at least one nice picture (and guess where it ended up ...Ed). Then it was lunchtime and we had our picnic by the peacocks and wallabies and as the children	ate their food, the animals were allowed to roam free and came over to introduce themselves! With their stomachs full the children were ready to feed the slightly bigger animals. So it was back to meet Les and off we went to the Giraffe enclosure. The children were given large branches covered in fresh leaves, which the giraffes devoured with glee, sometimes in their excitement a giraffe would tug upwards on the branch, lifting one of the children off the ground! A farewell stroke of their necks and off we went to the elephant show that was taking place in front of a few hundred people. There were two large females and a small baby - mind you the baby probably weighed a ton! After finishing the show, they were led into another paddock with the crowd following behind. The children in my care were taken in to feed the elephants and ask the keepers a multitude of questions as they had done with all of the keepers they had met. I was like a big kid being allowed to get up close to all the animals to take photos. Whilst I was taking one of the elephants, another was tapping me on the shoulder with its trunk, reminding me I had not taken photos of her yet! Then onto another highlight at the rhino enclosure, these creatures can crush you just by leaning on you. Their diet is vegetables so the children settled down to feed these monster creatures with carrots, cabbage leaves and a variety of other foods before moving to the next pen where they were to meet a one-day old rhino. When the pen door opened, it took 3 attempts to get the mother and baby out into the open. The baby rhino seemed very surprised to be out and I don’t know if anyone had been able to get photos up until then, so I may have got the first pictures of this baby. I did send the pictures to The Sun newspaper, but they chose not to print them. It wasn’t until a week later that ITV’s Thames at Six featured the rhino, so once again The Sun lost out on a scoop! On the way home, the chatter in the car sounded as though we had been on a big safari through the game reserves of Africa. I must say that both Les and the Whipsnade Zoo did themselves proud with the way they said ‘Thank You’ and entertained the children. So if you want to take the children out for a wonderful day, go to Whipsnade or the London Zoo; there are enough attractions for a whole day’s visit. I hope you enjoy the few photos that Alan might include with this article and if any driver would like a selection of photos for their children to view or a school project, just contact me at TomW@dialacab.co.uk Facebook page (Thomas Whitbread). You will know which one by the Dial-a-Dreamm logo and maybe then you will even become a friend and know when new photographs go on. Tom Whitbreadd DaC Board member

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