Destiny Big Cat Sanctuary: Our Staff

Keelan Bailey is the lone homegrown staff member at Destiny Big Cat Sanctuary. Born at Memorial Regional Hospital in 1969, Keelan was raised in nearby Miramar. He likes to claim that he never knew what he wanted to be when he grew up until he met Victoria Canzonetta and her cats; he was about 31 years old when he met her. He had found that so far in his life, he never felt like he was in the right place until that fateful meeting. Keelan began stopping by the sanctuary every so often to lend a hand on projects, or to help fix something that was beyond the current staff's ability. When the little white tiger cub named Isis arrived, it was suggested that it was the perfect time for Keelan to begin learning to work with cats. From that point on, Keelan continued to work at his regular job during the week, and spent each and every weekend working at the sanctuary trying hone all of the handling and keeper skills that he was being taught. As it turned out, Isis was the perfect cub for an entry level handler to learn with. From the start, Isis was a very difficult cub to deal with. She was not the typical cute and cuddly cub that many of the big cats are when they are young. It left an indelible impression on Keelan of exactly what he was dealing with. There were no false pretenses. From day one, Keelan learned that exotic animals will never be tame. Tolerant? Yes. But NEVER tame. That initial lesson has served Keelan well in how he approaches his daily contact with all the

animals in his care.

In December of 2001, Keelan was diagnosed with cancer and found himself at a crossroads in his life. For him, his time at Destiny meant everything, and he finally felt that he was on his way to making his life and it's purpose agreeable to him. Once again, he found himself at Memorial Regional Hospital, only this time he was fighting for his life. During his first week of chemotherapy, the Destiny staff completely redecorated his room. Pictures of Destiny's cats were hung on the walls, the bed sheets were changed to tiger striped ones, and various other decorations adorned the room. The room was a hit, and Keelan was christened with the name "jungle man" by his primary nurse. Between the incredible care of the Memorial Regional Cancer Center staff, and the support of his family, Keelan used his anger of having his life slip away right when he was finding his proper place to push him through to recovery. During his two week breaks from Chemotherapy, he visited the sanctuary as often as he was up to it. On the good days, the rest of the staff made sure that he got in with the cats as often as possible. They put themselves at more risk than usual since they would have to protect Keelan in his weakened state if anything went wrong. After all, apex predators recognize the weak and sick in any herd. While there was never an incident, Keelan never forgot that his friends bore the extra risk on themselves to make sure that he kept in contact with the cats. On the bad days, Keelan would just sit in a chair by the habitats and rest while the cats would visit him at the fence.

Keelan is now cancer free, going on 4 years. He is also now working at the sanctuary full time. He currently cares for the animals, uses his maintenance background to keep things running around the sanctuary, and handles all the media projects for the sanctuary; including photography, videography, and maintaining this website. His biggest accomplishment since getting a second chance in life is working in with Zenobia the lion. Up until then, he only worked "hands on" with the tigers until he further developed his skills, and nerve for that matter, to venture inside with Zenobia. He now looks forward to developing that relationship during "Part II" of his life.

Keelan's Favorite Links

Memorial Cancer Center...if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here.

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