Slithering, Crawling Creatures, Do They Make Good Pets?

One day, after school last week, we decided to take a trip over to The Grove Nature Center in Glenview. My 6-year-old son is intrigued by anything with two, four or no legs that slithers and crawls. He has checked out almost every book about them from the Morton Grove Public Library. Therefore, my daughter and I are just as fascinated, and so we all drove over on a rainy afternoon to see what treasures awaited us.

When we entered the nature center after a short trek through the woods, we were greeted by a pool full of turtles. Some lay under the heat lamp, others swam around and a couple were eating the chopped veggies left for them on the rocks. This would have been enough for my son, but there was more.

We found cages and tanks filled with fish, snakes, snapping turtles, frogs, salamanders, mice, and some things I am still not sure what they were. Within moments of entering, my son was talking with a nature center employee about the various animals and facts about them.

She quickly introduced us to The Grove's director, Steve Swanson, recently back from a trip to Southern Illinois with about a hundred rescued reptiles and other creatures that would have otherwise met their fate.

He explained how they use these rescued reptiles, fish and mammals to educate people about the wild habitat around us. We saw the creatures being transported and transferred to their new habitats.

My son wants a cold-blooded pet of his very own, but I am less enthusiastic about trying to duplicate the necessary environment within the confines of our living room. So we were all pleased to learn about a program The Grove offers for children and their parents, teenagers and adults without children too.

Animal care volunteers come to the nature center to assist the employees with feeding, handling and cleaning the cages of the hundreds of animals that live there. They try to work with your schedule and do all the training needed. We will be filling out the application, which is available at the nature center or you may e-mail kathyjo.townson@glenviewparks.org for more information.

 I will be sure to write about some of our adventures at The Grove this summer. In the meantime, you may want to take yourself there. It is only a 20-minute drive from Morton Grove and is located at 1421 Milwaukee Ave., Glenview. The hours are Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and weekends from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Along with The Grove Nature Center, there are 123 acres of ecologically diverse prairie grove land to investigate.