Animal Rentals Blog

They were making good time while on the way to do a college show at  Southwest Tennessee Community College last night until the “check engine” light went on. Seconds later, the engine stalled and the ANIMAL RENTALS van slowly crept to a stop about two hours from their destination.  Knowing they would never make it in time to do the exotic animal show, Bill Hoffmann called the Chicago office.  An hour later, Mark pulled away from the curb.  Driving non stop throughout the night he met Bill in the early morning.  After transferring the animals to another van,  Mark continued to the College minus Mindy the Monkey who refused to leave her dad.  While waiting for the tow truck, Mindy amused herself  by playing with the steering wheel, while Bill worried that Mark would arrive on time to do the show.  A phone call from Mark a few hours later eased his pain.  Mark was setting up for the first show, the animals were all fine and the show was on schedule.

Later that day, an exhausted and relieved Bill Hoffman drove back to Chicago with Mindy fast sleep in the passenger seat.  They would be home in no time, with a new alternator flawlessly doing its job.

Neither rain, sleet,  snow or a busted alternator can stop ANIMAL RENTALS from completing their job.  Alternators may die, but the show will go on!

When you are a monkey April first isn’t the only day that is all about jokes and pranks.  Every day is fun and games day for us! 

Monkeys love to laugh and fool around all of the time.  And we have excellent senses of humor.  In fact, sometimes it is very hard for us to be serious.  And we definitely get excited about things that are interesting and fun.  I guess I can see why dad tells people that emotionally I am at the level of a two year old human child.  But sometimes I think that dad just doesn’t get my jokes.  He has a great sense of humor too, but I don’t know why dad doesn’t think every single thing that I do is hilarious…because I do!

He didn’t laugh the day that I grabbed the end of the toilet paper roll and ran all over the house unrolling it and wrapping it around the furniture in one big long line.  He didn’t laugh the day I grabbed the truck keys out of his pocket and threw them into the wet, muddy water.  And he didn’t even laugh the night that I turned off the lamp every time he just sat down from turning it on so that he had to get back up out of his chair again if he didn’t want to sit in the dark.

Even though dad doesn’t think that everything I do is funny, I have certainly made him laugh out loud lots of times over the years.  Like the time we were traveling to one of our college entertainment shows and I put my water down on the driver’s seat while dad and Mark were pumping gas and Mark didn’t see it when he got back in and he sat right on it and got all wet.  Or the time I was eating strawberries at one of our live exotic animal displays and got sticky red spots from my hands all over dad’s head when I hugged him.  Or the time I pretended to be Lawrence of Arabia on the camel ride at one of our exotic petting zoos.  And he laughed really hard the time I tried to take a picture of myself with his cell phone on the set of one of the television commercials I was in.

So even though today is just a normal day of fun and games for me, I want to wish you all an especially happy April Fools’ Day!  What kinds of jokes and games and pranks did you do today?

Hi everyone, I’m Mindy!  I am a Capuchin monkey and I have a very special job as an animal ambassador.  Here on my blog I will be telling you stories about what it is like to live, work and play with all kinds of different animals.

I’m so lucky that I get to travel all over the United States with my dad, Bill Hoffman of Animal Rentals, entertaining people and teaching them about wild, domestic and exotic animals.  I have a lot of animal friends that travel with me and help me with our animal shows, and we always have a great time meeting new people and seeing how happy and excited they are to meet us.

Even though I am only six years old, I have already worked at many different events and met hundreds of wonderful people.  I’ve been on television, worked at parties, fairs and festivals, performed on stage and at college shows, gotten all dressed up for corporate events and trade shows, and even danced as an organ grinder monkey.  My dad is really funny and he makes people laugh a lot while he is teaching them about us and what it is like to live and work with exotic animals.  I think my favorite part of being an animal ambassador is seeing the joy on people’s faces when they get to touch a monkey or a chinchilla or a snake for the very first time.  It sure is a great job, and I can’t wait to tell you more about it!

I’m so glad that you found my blog and I hope you come back often to read about all the great adventures that my dad, my friends and I have working and playing together.   And be sure to like my Facebook page, so that I can get to know you too!