BARRIE - Doug Grabinsky considers himself a lucky guy, having spent the past three decades sharing his love of animals with others.
As he tells it, it all started with a party, where he had been invited to bring along some of his critters – a hobby that included snakes, insects and rabbits.
“Any my phone started ringing shortly after,” he tells BarrieToday. “I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘I'll do this for a living.’ It picked me.”
He had been working in the automotive industry as a body shop foreman and manager. It was a job, but Grabinsky knew animals were his life. He even got an animal sciences degree — not for a job, just because he was interested.
After saving some money, he opened the Flying Circus Pet Emporium pet store on Highway 90 in the 1990s.
When the box stores started making significant inroads into the retail pet industry, he knew it was time to move on.
And his full-time business, ZooTek, was born, featuring exotic animals in an interactive, educational, entertainment program, Grabinsky calls "edutainment," which takes him from the Barrie area all over central and southern Ontario. His collection includes lizards, snakes, rabbits, chinchillas and birds.
“I’ll put on a full-hour show for the kids and I let them touch almost everything I bring,” he says. “When I go to a birthday party, I get to be a seven-year-old again.”
After his many years of experience, he’s figured out what works and what doesn’t as he finesses what he does. Not only has he met the second generation, he’s started entertaining their children, too.
He recalls a recent birthday party where he received a big hug from the grandmother and then the mother of the six-year-old child celebrating their birthday. The grandmother recalled hiring him three years in a row for her child, who is now a mother.
“It kind of made me feel a little bit old that day,” he says with a laugh.
March break is, of course, his busiest season, with 16 shows scheduled through the week this year. Summers are busy, too. But parties and other events keep him and the critters busy through the year.
There are parties, daycares, businesses that attract kids and libraries that call him in for his show-and-tell demonstration of the animals.
Then there’s the movie business. He was involved in several episodes of The Red Green Show, commercials, campaigns and the Canadian adventure television series Relic Hunter.
“I’m intrigued by all of it — marine life, insects, reptiles,” he says.
In the film industry, he says he's been able to work with a variety of animals, including elephants.
He also looks forward to presenting his animals at Drysdale's Tree Farm over the Easter weekend, something he’s been doing for the past 18 years as part of the entertainment, which includes an Easter egg hunt, wagon rides and magic shows.
The main attraction, of course, for both him and his audience, is spending time with the animals.
He points to Zach, his parrot. Parrots are known to live to be 70 to 80 years old and are known to become part of the family, he says. He figures Zach will probably outlive him and is most likely to live with Grabinsky’s grown son, with whom he’s developed an attachment.
But, he points out, all of the animals can’t live with him. Many municipalities prohibit certain snakes and/or snake lengths from living in a residential area, for example. So he has an off-site facility where he keeps them with the help of three employees, usually high school students who work with him for a couple of years before they move on. They help tend to the animals regularly and also become involved in the shows and demonstrations.
Grabinsky takes pride in his animals and how he cares for them. He points to an African fat-tailed gecko that he had for several years. The average lifespan for the species is in the 20-year range. His lived until age 41.
Daisy, his pot-bellied pig, lived until age 16.
“I’m lucky I get to do this,” he says.