My husband David was never involved to much degree in owning animals other than a dog or two in his childhood, but found out very quickly what it was like to live with the “zoo woman of the Enchanted Kingdom” once we got together in the early ‘90’s. He got to live out all his childhood fantasies by now residing & becoming co-proprietor for a large scale rescue & animal reserve in Southern Missouri.

We shared our lives with everything furred, finned, scaled, or feathered that you could imagine. Each day was surrounded with inquiring eyes following you around for food into the barn, or late cold winter nights keeping watch on a pending birth of a miniature baby burro, foal, llama, or pigmy kid goat. Inside wasn’t any simpler! The side wing of the kitchen housed cages of exotic baby birds, recovering goslings from a skunk attack, incubators of every type of hatchlings imaginable, or a litter box of puppies or kittens. No… life was never dull at the reserve!

We not only had rescued animals on the reserve, but quite a few “homesteaders” that just took up squatters rights and moved on in, such as a sweet family of groundhogs that never ceased to amuse us with their aerobic antics right outside the kitchen window, a threatening looking huge raccoon boy we called “Ben” who helped himself to anything left on the deck to eat and made you wait to pass by if he was dining on a misplaced now invaded trashbag, to our sweet mama mule deer and her annual fawn in all its speckled beauty. Yes… it was like a dream place, an animal heaven that we called home for 15 years. Large & small… we loved them all.

Rabbits & cavies have seemed to always be a part of my life both growing up and into adulthood. Daddy was raising meat pen production rabbits for sale and once I was old enough to know there were actually “fancy” bunnies, I was hooked. I started with the classic Dutch variety and soon had to have dwarfs, lop-eared, angoras, velvety rex, satins and a few in between. I finally settled on just a few “favorite” favorites and started to develop a nice line of show winners.

One year at a state fair, I accidentally wondered into a back room area and saw the most unbelievable guinea pigs being judged that I had ever seen! You mean they show guinea pigs too? WOW! I was hooked!

I went home with some beautiful Peruvians, Abyssinians, and a couple Americans. I was on my way…

Through the years I got deeper & deeper into the fancy and in the early ‘70’s I started a local sanctioned chapter of a club called Mountain Shadows Cavy Fanciers in Scottsdale, AZ. We had some wonderful members and monthly pot-luck meetings that were like a mini-show day with members bringing their latest “brag abouts”, questions, or just a fun day socializing after business adjourned. It is some of my fondest memories within the fancy.

Some very very special heartfelt memories are cherished for the guru of cavies in my opinion, Ernie Parks of Glendale, AZ. He was a rabbit & cavy judge as well as a very important early developer of what we know today as the TSW variety. What Ernie didn’t know and love to teach & share about cavies… has never been written. He always had time to talk to youth exhibitors until the last question had been answered. He was always willing to critique any animals you were considering purchasing pulling no punches about his opinion, but always explaining why or why not to get them.

Everyone loved showing under Ernie Parks. They always knew his decision was fair and just. He made you want to learn & strive to improve your stock and knowledge. His kind, soft-spoken nature made you want to hug him, even when you lost at the table! Ernie mentored many young judges. Allen Barr of Phoenix (now California) became a shadow of Ernie’s style and to this day has the same method of judging and teaching. Ernie Park’s legacy lives on, at least forever in my heart. I am so proud to have known him and called him my friend.

My life took a natural turn into being in the veterinarian business and so I not only cared for my own animals but others who were brought to me in need. I cherish the memories of all I have birthed, saved, or helped to a better existence, and morn all those who lost their fight while I battled to keep them here before they passed over the Rainbow Bridge. All are imbedded in my heart & soul forever.

Here today some 35+ years later, I still have “the disease” and my wonderful husband David shares his life with me and our fur babies! We no longer live on hundreds of open-space acres with free roaming critters and a staff of helpful caretakers. We moved out west to Las Vegas, NV and had to adjust to total culture shock in many ways. I had to sell or place all my animals during the transitional move here and it’s taken nearly 3 years to have a fur-lined home again starting over on a much smaller scale, of course. Ours is no longer acres of rolling hills & green trees, but a nice confined, loving space in a pretty home in a nice warm climate with desert mountain beauty. A new chapter has begun.

Life is different now but our love & devotion to the animals and the fancy hasn’t changed. We both plan work-days off around a show date and location travel. We both choose to buy a new fur baby instead of enjoying an evening out to a movie most times. Guests visit knowing that the critters come first in our house and so if that doesn’t work for them… they can just stay away.

Today for Susi Miller-Wright and David Wright, it’s a love affair with each other and with the animals we care for and raise with just The WRIGHT TOUCH.