Posted on 11/19/2008 6:17:43 AM PST by Daffynition
ST. PETERSBURG - This has been a hellish vacation for Larry and Diana Moyer of Beaver Dam, Wis.
Today they were just about ready to pack up their pampered kangaroo and crippled goat and head home.
The couple, who run Ricky's White Tails and Exotics farm in the cold climes of Wisconsin, brought two of their favorite living things along for the Sunshine State road trip, but the fun times have been few and really hard to find.
As Diana let a leashed Jack, the kangaroo, munch on some dried grass at Fort De Soto Park this afternoon, she told her woeful story.
First, the aging recreational vehicle broke down three times on the way south.
"We should have brought the other one," she said. "It's a little older, but it runs pretty good."
A new alternator fixed the problem, and the Moyers arrived in Pinellas County, where Larry, 57, had a minor stroke and wound up in the hospital for three days.
"He has them all the time," Diana said. Larry, wearing jeans, suspenders and a "Wanted: John Dillinger -- Public Enemy No. 1" T-shirt, just nodded his head in agreement.
On Sunday, out of the hospital and looking for some relaxation, the couple pulled off on a spit of shoreline just south of the South Pinellas Bayway toll plaza to do a little fishing and watch the sunset. That's when a short circuit in a fuse box ignited the motor home. Within an hour, all that was left was a charred hulk.
Diana was hospitalized for smoke inhalation but released a few hours later. All their wallets, identification and money went up in flames, and the Tampa Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross got them a hotel room.
As the Moyers' luck would have it, the motel allowed goats but not kangaroos.
So they got Jack and Edward into the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation center in Seminole.
Today they strolled around the burned-out wreck of their RV, waiting for an insurance agent to arrive, waist deep in misery and anxious to get back on the road home, where, even though it's cold, their luck has got to change. They bought an old Volvo for $1,500 and hope it will get them there.
Unfazed by all this are Jack the kangaroo and Edward the goat. As their owners pulled the Volvo up next to the RV, Edward, who was injured in a car accident 13 years ago and needs a cart to get around because his front legs are useless, blinked at the sun out of the back window of the car, taking in the blue sky and sparkling Gulf of Mexico. Jack was nestled in Diana's lap as she drove, like a 60-pound Yorkshire terrier.
"They are like family," Larry said. "They stay in the house with us at night."
Traveling from Wisconsin to Florida is an undertaking in itself, and when you bring along your favorite marsupial, it gets even more involved. The Moyers had to check with every state they drove through to see whether they had to register their exotic animal.
"Every state where his feet touch the ground," said Diane Moyer, 47, "we had to get a permit," including Florida.
"Kentucky," she said. "We couldn't even go through Kentucky. It's a no-exotics state."
Two-year-old Jack, who is a registered service animal for Diana, helping her get through some recent troubled, emotional times, even "goes to the movies with us," Larry said. He sits there and eats popcorn and everything."
the motel allowed goats but not kangaroos...
Naturally. Kangaroos bark all night.
...it just seemed up your alley!
Oh my goodness... words cannot express my gratitude for this... it is the most ridiculous fantastic story ever. O. M. G. R. O. T. F.
I have to stop going to McDonalds. I started salivating when I saw that kangaroo.
Oh I SO want to go the movies and see a kangaroo sitting in a seat eating popcorn.
Just once in my life. Really.
As the Moyers’ luck would have it, the motel allowed goats but not kangaroos.
Which motels allow goats?!?!? I don’t believe I care to stay there.
Stranger than fiction ping.
There's a joke President Reagan told about the way collectivist politicians treat rich people: A traveling salesman stays overnight with a farm family. When the family gathers to eat there's a pig seated at the table. And the pig has three medals hanging around his neck and a peg leg. The salesman says, "Um, I see you have a pig having dinner with you.""Yes," says the farmer. "That's because he's a very special pig. You see those medals around his neck? Well, the first medal is from when our youngest son fell in the pond, and he was drowning, and that pig swam out and saved his life. The second medal, that's from when the barn caught fire and our little daughter was trapped in there and the pig ran inside, carried her out and saved her life. And the third medal, that's from when our oldest boy was cornered in the stock yard by a mean bull, and that pig ran under the fence and bit the bull on the tail and saved the boy's life."
"Yes," says the salesman, "I can see why you let that pig sit right at the table and have dinner with you. And I can see why you awarded him the medals. But how did he get the peg leg?"
"Well," says, the farmer, "a pig like that--you don't eat him all at once."
http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-pjo061897.html
But ... but ... he’s in a cute little cart. His feet don’t even touch the floor. [see vid]
If he’s a service animal, how can they deny him a room ...or did this story happen in Bethlehem?
Just think ... his pouch could hold all sorts of treats to sneak into the theater!
Priceless!
Just when you thought you'd heard it all...
ewwwww! a hotel that allows goats to stay? I want to know the name, so I know where NOT to stay!!!
We had a bit of a hard time finding places that allowed a cat when we moved. Thank goodness for La Quinta and Residence Inn!
You know, they should have gotten a more standard service animal...like, say a miniature horse.
OK, I need to put a placeholder on this one.
If I only had a nickel for every wheelchair goat, kangaroo guide flaming RV story I’ve ever read... Nothing too unusual here-I mean, kangaroos are probably the marsupial best suited for being a service animal. Had they declared they had a platypus service animal I wouldn’t have believed a word!
This 'roo was a washout in the service academy...
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