from MLive dot-com --
GRAND RAPIDS — Aliens are invading tonight. And monkeys riding dogs that are herding sheep are coming next month.
Where are you? A minor league baseball game, of course. Tim “Wild Thang” Lepard, has been training and performing with his animals for 34 years at rodeos, baseball games and recently movies. His fascination with this is rooted in his childhood, which he said was filled with Curious George books.
Curious George is not incorporated in the act but Curious George Night is July 10, if you’re ... curious.
The rodeo clown, who works the ring saving cowboys from bulls, said he was always known as a “funny man” surrounded by macho-type bull riders. His friends encouraged him to put his humor into an act. That’s when the monkeys got involved, in the late 1980s. He said it took years to figure out which dogs would jive with the monkeys for a performance. He was apprehensive to use border collies because they are not large, but he realized “it’s not how big the dog is, it’s how big its heart is” in 1990.
Lepard, 48, loves his job because he loves his animals. The Mississippi-native spends most of his year traveling across the country in a 48-foot trailer he shares with his six monkeys, four dogs and four rams.
The show almost came to an end in 2000, when Lepard lost everything in an accident.
“Carbon monoxide got in the trailer and killed my animals,” he said. “I was devastated and shocked, and I hung my hat in, but you wouldn’t believe how many phone calls, emails and faxes I got. I said if people believe in me this much then I’m not going to let them down.”
For super fans who show up Aug. 20, they might want to bring Pop-Tarts — the monkeys’ favorite treat — along with their ball glove.
After all, it is a baseball game.
See PHOTO of "Team Ghost Rider" -- http://www.mlive.com/whitecaps/index.ssf/2011/06/monkeys_riding_dogs_herding_sh.html
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