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First her brother died, then her mother. And now the remaining black bear in Waterloo Park will be moved to a "mediâ€" umâ€"sized" 200. £ Waterloo must get out of the zoo business Twin brother was put down after becomâ€" ing ill with uremia â€" a symptom that the kidneys are not funcitioning correctly. A vet, called in by the city, said the prognosis was not good. _ Then two weeks later mama Mitzi showed signs of heart failure and was obviously suffering. So she, too, was put down. So after years of outright stupidity, the city has come to its senses long enough to realize sis needs a new home. â€" It‘s not that they hadn‘t been warned. Rob Laidlaw, founder of the Zoocheck Coalition of Canada, twice warned in 1988 that the concrete floor, lack of branches and lack of privacy was causing stress and boredom for the bears, raccoons and porcuâ€" A group of us at work were chatting ;heotherdnym':lffl“hw weekend. Three of it turns out, will be attending their high school will be reunion. School nun':l. They‘re m of like 1 parties and~company tournaâ€" }::nts. No one Wwants to do the work, but boy are they: ever fun‘to attend, ¢ Of course, I‘m only speaking from the experience of one reunion I attended, our high sehool‘s 25th anniversary a decade ago. But memories of the day are fresh, a good time was had by all, and I urge anyone with the chance to attend one in the next couple of weeks to do so. Thinking back to the wild weekend at Downsview. high, I do, uh, have a few recommendations for those not experâ€" ienced in these reunions things. Before heading:to the reunion, make sure you have a job, or are going to school, or doing something significant in your life. At our reunion, I had just been laid off. Fun. Ever tryâ€"answering 436 people when they ask "so what are you doing with your life?"" Was I going to tell them "watching soap operas." From time to time a kind reader will come across a piece of writing that is too good not to pass along. Here‘s one by Henry Ward Beecher: "If one should give me a dish of sand and tell me that there were particles of ironinit,lui‘htlookforthemvithmy eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers; but let me take a magnet and sweepwig,.ndmvoulditdraw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction. . "The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, will discover no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the dqynnd,uthemmdfindstheiron,soit will find in every hour, some heavenly blt;;ipgl. Only the iron in God‘s sand is gold". That was written a century ago and may sound a bit flowery to our more sophistic ears, but the message is just as clear and valid as it was then. The "thankful heart" is.one of cheerful The thankful heart looks for the good in people omment Be prepare expectancy, it is looking for things to be thankful for. It is a mental attitude that ed for anything at your school reunion pines in the city‘s soâ€"called z00. Still, wild animals continued to be kept. Conditions were not significantly imâ€" proved. And now two bears are dead. 1 NC e e n 2e ERRNERTEA ces o Said Dr. Kellyâ€"Leigh Thomas, a Waterloo veterinarian (and former CBC veterinary commentator): "They‘re not in their norâ€" mal habitat or normal environment, so they do tend to die earlier." Dr. Thomas says "it‘s ridiculous" for the city to have animals. "The city has nobody on staff that is veterinaryâ€"oriented. It doesn‘t make sense at all." Kathy Durst, the city‘s commissioner of _ ‘"I‘m a journalist." s "What â€" you keep a diary?" s "No, no, I write, for a newspaper. Uh, up in Waterloo." ‘"Which one?" "Oh, the, uh, big paper up there. Yup, anything that makes headlines, I‘m on the scene." "Strange, I thought you said in the yearbook you wanted to be a landscape architect." And on it goes. _ Other ‘"need to know" information about reunions. They are no place to go up to your grade 10 science teacher, slap him on the back, and admit it was you who hooked the Bunsen burner up to the water line. His sense of humor isn‘t any better than it was 25 years ago. Make sure the day of the event that, given the style ci'umges over the years, looks for the good in people and events and makes up your concept of reality. It is as if you had a little camera that was constantly taking pictures. You deâ€" cide the kind of pictures you want taken . by choosing the direction in which to point your camera. So, from your newspaper or TV you might be taking pictures of tragedy, sickness, violence and crime and that, to you, is reality. Or you might be taking snapshots of everyone‘s negative qualiâ€" ties, their favlts and shortcomings and so that, to you, is the way people really are. Or perhaps you are clicking off pictures of the obstacles, frustrations and general hopelessness of your career future and "That‘s Life‘ Geoffrey Fellows Rick Campbell you part your hair (providing you still have some) as close as possible to the way you did in your yearbook pic. That way, no zunty zooey can.come up to you and ask you about "shovelling the snow on the roof a little differently, aren‘t Be sure not to talk about the winning basket you never made in the championâ€" ship game, or the scholarship you never won, or the lead you never played in the school musical. Variation on Murphy‘s Law, someone will be listening who knows it simply wasn‘t thus. When you see the hot redhead from your grade 11 class who‘s now a dreary dishwater blonde and who wouldn‘t go out with you then because you were only in the same grade, remind her of the recreation and culture (and the person increased emphasis on the zoo. ultimately responsible for the zoo), has _ They want to make it the centrepiece of admitted the current facilities are inadeâ€" â€" the park, for heaven‘s sake. There will be quate. more domestic animals, and wild deer, and The auestion that begs answering is if â€" petting the animals will be encouraged "What the heck difference is it going to make 25 years from now?" Then thank her for doing you a favor. ‘ Most reunions have â€" theme rooms. When you go into the room that‘s supposed to represent your decade, preâ€" tend that the music playing was the music you listened to, and the clothes The question that begs answering is if they are now inadequate, why were they adequate a month ago? And if they were inadequate a month ago, why were wild animals being kept there? If they were humans, there‘d be a good case for bringâ€" ing manslaughter charges in this case. Why did the humane society never charge the city? $ And it‘s not over yet, unfortunately. Even when a new home is found for sis, wild animals will remain in tiny and inadequate cages in Waterloo Park. And without fullâ€"time veterinary care. je li;r:ow;g sis is not part'of a trend. Far from it. The Waterloo Park Master Plan (which the public will be invited to discuss June 12 at again, without a shadow of a doubt, you‘re caught in a mesh of futility because you have the pictures up there to prove it. But truth and reality are not necessarâ€" ily the same. For example, half a glass of water represents the truth, but the reality of it, to you, is whether you see it as half full or half empty. As Aristotle put it: "What you expect, that you shall find." QOur concepts of reality are of our own choosing. There is nothing mystical or magical about this. It is just that good things and bad things are coming our way all the time, so it‘s just a matter of which ones you want your camera to take note of, which make them your realities. The person with an unthankful heart will even want to minimize a good thing when it is staring him in the face; if you offered him a doughnut, all he would see is the hole in the middle. So, if your camera is resolutely pointed in the direction of things for which you can be thankful, they will be realized. This cheerfullyâ€"expectant attitude will city hall) recommends an WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY MAY 17, 1989 â€" PAGE 7 and hairstyles on display were just like "Beach Boys? Who ever listened to the hard to make these deals authentic. And make sure to have all the right answers ready for all the questions people will ask. How on earth did you turn from a skinny rail into a beerâ€"gut palooka? Why were you the only person from your graduating class to go to university out of town? Didn‘t you get along with your parents? How do you rationalize your radical student days with today‘s Gucci leather stylings? Why isn‘t your spouse with you? No pictures of the kids? What was the real reason you and Biff Borkley broke up two days before your wedding? Did anyone ever find out you plagiarized your grade 13 history essay? Was that you hiding behind the portables during the twoâ€"mile run? Most of all, though, go to your reunion, have lots of fun, and be yourself. If that means being a nerd, so be it. Some things never change. Geoff Fellows operates the Human Resource Development Institute P.O. Box â€"642, Cambridge, NIR 5W1, providing effectiveness training to business and â€" industry. also attract good things to you, because it is our attitude toward the world that determines the world‘s attitude toward us. If you begin each day like a snarling wolverine after a threeâ€"day fast, you will be in for a pretty bleak time. Those who start their day being con: sciously thankful for their blessings and are cheerful and accommodating to those with whom they come in contact always end up feeling good about themselves and are usually surprised at how many good things seem to come their way. Once you have formed this habit, it becomes a mental attitude which, as it were, locks your camera onto all those things for which you should be thankful Take your clumsy fingers out of the sand. and use a magnet. On the surface it looks like a good idea for the city to have a petting 2oo. As Kathy Durst said recently, "I think they‘re important for kids who wouldn‘t have that experience." "The best run zoos in the world are the big ones, like Toronto Zoo," she said They have the medical, physical, monetary and ecological resources to do the job right But let‘s leave this to the experts. Toronto Zoo is a short drive away. Let‘s not continue killing animals. Waterloo should get out of the zoo business, lock, stock, and barre! â€" or more particularly: deer, racâ€" coons and rabbits. Bad move. according to Dr. Thomas at