Petaluma Profile: Alison Klahr’s animal house

Kimball is a 5-year-old serval. Among wildcats, only a cheetah is faster than he is. Kimball lives at Animals Galore and More in Petaluma, an animal education business, primarily housing rare, surrendered and rescued species. A year ago, animal educator-handler Alison Klahr noticed that when she took her menagerie to classrooms or private events, the long-legged, big-eared cat would hiss, growl and refuse to leave his travel crate.

This cat was fed up with life on the road.

So Alison made a revealing decision. From now on, if people wanted to see this splendid creature - able to leap seven feet vertically to come down on prey - they would have to come to him.

That meant that she and her husband Mike would have to open their small house to the public for birthday parties and other events, a price they were willing to pay.

At Animals Galore, the animals are never coerced.

Alison and Mike Klahr first met in high school in Novato, going their own ways for 18 years before starting a life together in Petaluma in 2013. During those years, Alison worked to fulfill a dream she traces back to age three: to work with wild animals. Becoming a veterinarian held no appeal. The emotional toll of constantly seeing sick animals would be too much.

There had to be another way.

After graduating from Cal State Chico in recreation management, Alison visited Marine World (now Six Flags) in Vallejo, where she met staff members working with dolphins. This encounter inspired her to go to Hawaii, where she backpacked around until she found a dolphin project that would allow her to intern. The research entailed communicating with the dolphins by teaching them to select letters from the alphabet on a touchscreen.

Back in California, she underwent nine weeks of training at Hollywood Animals, where animals are trained for work in movies, TV and ads.

Her first job with animals was at Wild Things in Salinas, now the Monterey Zoo.

“It was an amazing experience,” she said. “There were over 200 animals there, and that’s where I formed my commitment to animals.”

For three years, she cared for, handled and trained the creatures.

With solid experience behind her, she moved on to the MGM Grand Hotel Lion Habitat in Las Vegas to train lions.

“Probably the easiest job I’ve had,” she said. “There was a big glass window for families to watch through, while the cats did dance routines and so on.”

Alison describes lions as, “very calm animals, sweet, smart, trainable.”

Her next stop was the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Farmington, Pennsylvania, a 2,000-acre recreational facility that includes a wildlife sanctuary. At the time, the menagerie included bears, lions and monkeys.

“That experience was crucial,” Alison said, because it taught her technical matters such as food ordering and handling, as well as how to run all the relevant departments.

As curator, she didn’t mind the long days of hard physical work combined with administrative duties - but Pennsylvania winters were too much for a Californian.

“Working in the snow … you don’t get used to it,” she said.

Next stop, Hollywood.

She was recruited to work on the animal training team for the 2010 Brendan Fraser comedy “Furry Vengeance.”

“This was the best experience of my life,” she said. “It took me to a whole new level.”

Klahr helped train a raccoon to drive (“the smartest animals I’ve worked with”), taught a skunk to hide in a car, and a chipmunk to stand in the road as a vehicle bore down on it.

There were other show-biz gigs. She and her hamsters worked on the movie “One for the Money” (2012) starring Katherine Heigl. She appeared on the Letterman show with a leopard, and on “Good Morning” America with several animals including a great horned owl.

Meanwhile, Mike Klahr had built a career as a contractor. He and Alison reconnected briefly before she went back to Nemacolin for another year. When she returned to California for good, she and Mike became a couple. This is when Mike made a suggestion that would change their lives, as well as creating a lot of work for Mike.

He thought Alison should start her own animal education business.

First she needed an exhibitor license allowing her to work with “exotic” animals. Issued by state Fish & Game in combination with the federal Department of Agriculture, it is a difficult license to get because regulators don’t want amateurs messing around with wildlife.

The next challenge was location. For two years she and Mike looked everywhere around Petaluma, finally purchasing a 2-acre space in the hills northwest of town. Now she needed a custom barn in which to house the animals. Mike built it, with Fish & Wildlife guidance on such matters as enclosure size and wire gauge.

The animals also needed an “arena,” or safe place for outdoor exercise. Mike built it.

The umbrella cockatoo need a “screaming room” (or the noise would drive both man and beast insane). Mike built it.

Then Mike needed a “man cave” in which to watch sports and get away from the zoo. He built it.

Alison began gathering animals by focusing on some of her favorites. From Oregon, she brought home Linus, a one-week old Patagonian cavy (a large rodent in the guinea pig family) who often gets excited and urinates on her to mark his territory. He was followed by the serval Kimball, and a tiny fennec fox.

From the beginning, Alison established a few rules for her zoo. For one, no breeding (“too many animals already”), and no coercion. And she promised the animals daily physical handling and outdoor exposure. Without regular handling, animals can become aggressive, she pointed out. To keep that promise she uses a checklist.

Among the residents at Animals Galore are two ferrets, a hedgehog, a sugar glider (a small, arboreal and nocturnal gliding possum), a 50-pound African crested porcupine, Dudley the wallaby, Hannah the coati and a kinkajou or “honey bear” from South America. The reptile kingdom is represented by a pair of large tegu lizards (Bernie and Edith) from Argentina.

Some of these creatures have been rescued by Fish & Wildlife and offered to Alison. Others are drop-offs by the public.

“I don’t say no usually, but I’m running out of room,” she said.

Alison does the daily work at Animals Galore by herself, although her mother helps out on weekend events offsite. The work is not without its risks, even for a pro. The scarlet macaw, for instance, bit off a piece of her finger one day. Normally pleasant, the spectacular bird has mood swings, perhaps stemming from having been thrown out of a car. The porcupine accidentally stabbed her in the leg with one of its poisonous bristles, resulting in a swollen leg that required an Emergency Room visit.

Eventually Alison hopes to open a petting zoo. But for now she has her hands full with her wild family. “We’re dedicated to promoting relationships between people and animals through education and entertainment,” she said. “Our goal is to stimulate and nurture human interest in wildlife by providing a fun, one-on-one learning experience.”

(For more information, visit animalsgaloreandmore.com)