So you moved to the Parks Department?

Right.

Okay, that must have been a great job working at the Parks Department.

No.

James Diamond ran the Providence Parks Department in the 1970s.

And the reason it wasn't a great job?

The Parks Department was in charge of the zoo, which was a mess.

You had bison on the Interstate 95, the police telling them back to the zoo by the horns.

You had dogs breaking in and killing animals in the night.

And to clean up the mess, James needed to overhaul the zoo's workforce.

There was one zoo employee in particular who needed to go.

Chet.

Chet was most famous because we had a tortoise in the zoo.

It was older than the United States.

And it died in the bird house, which is where tortoises were kept in those days.

And the zoo director announced it was dead and got the back hole and dispose of it, because

it's much too heavy for people to pick up.

And Chet said, oh no, he's alive.

And Chet said it gives his feet the dead tortoise for three days.

Every zoo, though they tell you or don't tell you, has a major population of mice and rats.

Because the animals don't clean up out their plates and it's rat and mouse heaven.

So anyway, rats ate the eyes out of the tortoise.

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