Do you think you know Judie Harrison?

This post is for the 2 lovely people that made comments to me insulting me.
Not to go too deep into my personal life, yet would like to tell some of the truthful side of this article and your comment.

First off, you have no idea what the kids are like, how spoiled, jealous, and vindictive they were and still are.
I have 3 kids, 1 adopted, one step and one natural, not that that makes any difference.

My son became mentally ill at the age of 12. One night at the dinner table he said to my husband that he wished he had died when he had the car accident he had. My husband yelled at him. He, being so spoiled he jumped up from the table, pushed the table over and ran to his room. I went down to talk to him and received a slam of the door. You see I never hollered at my kids, I was the GREAT preacher. Spending many hours talking things through instead of punishment. The following morning I told him I would drive him to school since he was still upset about the hollering. I told him I would pick him up from school. When I arrived he was getting in his Fathers (we were divorced) truck. I had no idea what was going on.
I then called over to his fathers an hour later; my son would not speak to me. I called every day for a week, but got the same result. Finally I told my ex just to let him live there with him if he wasn’t happy living with us. This is what he did, for over a year. He wouldn’t return my phones calls.

One day I get a call from him saying that his father had put him in a mental hospital. To my surprise I didn’t even know he was sick. He said they were doing cavity searches on him because of the drug abuse there.. I went nuts! I drove over there immediately and signed him out. He then wanted to live with us, so he did. While he was home, he broke into my computer, stole pictures, e-mail addresses of important people and tried to make trouble for me. After I guess he got all he wanted he returned back to his fathers. Now my son had friends in the neighborhood, I took him where ever he wanted to go. We had game night every night with all 3 children; or whoever was home. I took them to the beach 2 times a week. He had 3 computers in his room because that’s what he wanted. He had 3 TV’s also so that way when his friends came over they could all play their games on their own TV. These were just some of the things he had and the time we spent together. It would take forever to give you a background of his and I’s relationship.

He hadn’t talked to me in a few years because he hated my husband. A husband that he had been with for 15 years. I left their father when Jason was 9 months old. I wanted a child so bad, no husband but knew that wouldn’t be right. I went through a 10 hour operation after seeing many fertility dr.'s Then my little miracle was born. He was the shining star in my life. As teenagers we all know how hard they are to raise and their needs are great, so knowing that we forgive allot.

My son was always in trouble, from stealing things at his friends’ houses, to stealing my bus in the middle of the night, letting it run out of gas and leaving it there. He never said a word. I called the police as anyone would think someone had broken into our house, stole my keys and drove off with it. Come to find out it was him, at the age of 15.

He also shut down one whole school districts computer system, they had to call a tech and we had to pay the outrageous amount. This was in middle school. For high school we got him into a tech school. At this school, he broke into their computer system and sent all of the personal information of every teacher, staff member, and all parents to all students’ information to everyone in the school! He was thrown out. There went his brilliant mind. He refused to go to any school then. I finally talked him into going to school. I talked to the staff there and told them of his history and that I would like him to be in classes with his step sister. She was really the only one that could keep him calm. Well that lasted 2 weeks. Then he was home all of the time. He asked if he could build an underground fort. I thought, why not, the outside air and sunshine would do him good. So he dug and dug until he had a 25’ wide and 12’ deep hole. He came in one day and said he couldn’t dig anymore, I asked why. He said that when he was digging all he wanted to do was to hit his friend in the head with the shovel. Now don’t think for one second that I didn’t get him help. Every week we would go to his therapist and he would sit there, not saying ONE WORD for an entire hour. She would ask him questions and he would stare at the walls as if she wasn’t there. He was and still is on many medications. He has never had a job in his life, never finished high school, can’t drive and all because my husband hollered at him? Come on. Well, a person can only take so much.

When he came home he wanted me to open up a business for him since everyone else was involved in one. So I asked him if he wanted to run a party store. He was all excited. He and I went all over the place looking for the right location and price. We found a really cute building by itself. So we both decided this was the one. Before I signed the lease he and I went over what kind of inventory we would have. He started to argue with me saying that if it’s his business he should be able to order everything himself and make all decisions. I told him I couldn’t allow him to do that because I would be on a budget and I already had retail experience. He got mad, didn’t want to do it and then he left again saying I was unfair.

After the last time he left, he tore our house up, went out in the front yard at night and started hollering. He wouldn’t come back into the house and with his anger, size and weight I was afraid for everyone. I called his father, the neighbors called the police. They arrived about the same time. He went home with his father for the last time.

Most of the time that the Chimps were with me, he lived with his father. My younger chimp he never met until he was about 4 years old. I believe that because I lost my only son I needed someone else to love and to love me back. Oh forgot to tell you that the morning I drove him to school, he told me that I had to make a choice, either him or my husband. I tried to explain to him that they are 2 different kinds of love and I could not and would not make that choice. I guess that’s why he called his father to come and pick him up.

Oh and the most important things is that when he left that day, we didn’t have any chimps, yet!!!!!!!

My step daughter

Came to live with us at the age of 14. She didn’t want to live with her alcoholic mother anymore.

She was my right hand person. She went all over the United States with me working the chimps. We were good buddies. She loved the chimps as much as I did, I thought. She never had a jealous problem. She got to meet all kinds of stars and she wanted to be a tiger handler.

We opened up a zoo because she wanted a tiger cub and I just couldn’t do that in a neighborhood. The rent alone there was 4K a month, all for a tiger for my step daughter. I wanted to make her lifelong wish come true, like mine had with the chimps. I took her to SC to be with people that were tiger handlers for years and years so she could get some education on them. Then I took her to Iowa to visit someone that had a baby lioness. In the pouring rain I stood outside for hours while she played with her and went and visited all of the other tigers.

The zoo was doing well; I had a deposit on a tiger cub. One day during an educational presentation she took the tiny little spurred tortoise down to talk about him with the kids. I went down to see how it was going and she had put a lid locked on the top of the container with him inside. When I saw it, I immediately took the lid off, asked my other daughter to finish the [presentation and took her to the kitchen and talked to her about it. I just couldn’t believe that someone I had raised around animals would be that stupid at the age of 21 years old!

A few hours later my 2 daughters were whispering at the counter. When I walked up, my step daughter walked away. I asked my other daughter what was going on. She said that her step sister was going to leave and was trying to talk her into leaving also. She walked out that day and we didn’t even know where she went. We called her mother, some of her friends that we knew and nothing. Then I find out from the neighbor’s kid that she was living with some boy. Well this boy had purple and green long hair, had been in and out of jail several times, uneducated, unemployed and foul. She married him and then called us and asked us if she could come over to talk to us. We said sure! Of course. Well she springs the news on us with bringing him. We tried, we had him for pizza dinner, and he joined us for Christmas. It’s hard to be nice to someone when you know they aren’t being nice to your loved one. She said she wanted to get back into the business so we let her. My husband took her on a job, her husband followed them!? Half way through the presentation he takes her out of there and says she has to go home and babysit. Then why make the commitment? So they left. He and she had a MySpace page. Here she is about 6-7 months pregnant, nude, drinking and rubbing all over another nude girl. We couldn’t believe our eyes! Her husband and her put these videos up for anyone to see. He was the one videotaping. What kind of husband would enjoy something like that? YUK! That’s when we decided that we just couldn‘t deal with it anymore. A person can only take so much slapping in the face and breaking your heart. So do you think this had anything at all to do with the chimps? NO… it’s called hormones.

So because she left the zoo and my other daughter left, we ended up closing down, breaking our lease and that was the beginning of our bankruptcy. With a 65K set up charge, not including the caging. You see, I had to bring the animals back and forth every morning and every evening. I didn’t want any of the primates left there at night without someone there.

My adopted daughter

She always said that she couldn’t wait to be 18 so she can move out. Of course I think we all felt that way with our parents, so I really didn’t pay too much attention to it. After she graduated she told me she was leaving. I asked where to, knowing that she couldn’t afford it. She was going to live with her father for the first time since she was 13 months old. Go figure! So off she went. A few months later she calls me and asked if she could come back home. I said yes of course!

When she came home she felt slighted because my step daughter got to work with me on the road. At this point I had a few businesses; chimp encounters, Party Safari Zoo, and monkey business. So to make her happy I started a business for her. I called it “jungle Friends” where she brought a snake, a monkey and a large bird and did educational programs. I advertised, and booked all of the parties for her. For each party they got 50.00 each, if my other daughter went and if not 100.00 for just her. I paid for the gas, the car insurance, the upkeep for all of the animals. They usually did 4 a weekend with each one only being an hour in length.

We left her in charge of the animals at the zoo while we had to go to CA for an USDA requirement. The first night I called and called and she wouldn’t pick up the phone, nor return my messages. I was beside myself thinking that she was injured and worrying about all of the animals. Finally the next evening we spoke. She told me some sort of lie because later on I found out that the very night we left she was having sex in OUR bed with a guy which we didn’t even know she had. She had meet him while at her fathers.

I was worried so we came home a day early. We stopped at the zoo first to check on everyone. I turned the key in the knob and opened the door. To my surprise and deep disgust I walked in on her and her boyfriend having sex in my office chair. I made him leave. I think this was the maddest I have ever been. I actually started hollering at her. I saw the boy outside pacing, not knowing what to do. I told her to bring him home and then come back so we could talk about why this was wrong. While she was gone I checked on the animals. There were 6 birds dead, 2 snakes dead, one snake missing, and a dead desert lizard. At 21 years old she couldn’t even be responsible enough to take care of the animals she was well trained to take care of. She came back and I questioned her about the animals. She got mad, got in her car and left. By the time we had gotten home she was gone. Back to dads.

She then calls me a few months later and says she pregnant. Not married, and no job for either one. She shocked me. The only thing I could say was “what would you like me to do?” I guess because all their lives I spent trying to make them happy. So I told her I needed a few days and would call her back.

My husband and I talked about a solution. We did something that I thought was a great thing to do, even though my husband totally disagreed!

We gave her boyfriend a job, under the table making 400.00 a week cash. Then they needed a place to live so they moved into these really nice apts across the street from the zoo. We paid for the deposit and paid for their rent every single month. We had problems with her boyfriend not doing his job at the zoo and talked to him many many times. He would just lie to me. We then sat both of them down and explained to them that if he didn’t do his job right we would have to let him go. Did they understand? I thought they did, but they didn’t. I was always a push over when it came to my kids. 2 weeks later we had to let him go. My daughter was so mad! BUT at 21 yrs. old they should be able to understand that even though the ride was sweet, they still needed to be grown up with their own responsibilities.

Now their apt. We were renovating our home so we thought that we would give them all of our furniture, dining room set, hutch, sofa, bed, huge TV and some other things. I went shopping and bought her all of the things that a new homemaker needs. From kitchen to bath to bedroom. I gave her Mikey my chimps crib because he was only in it for 2 weeks and that’s what she wanted.

So anyway she got mad and I didn’t hear from them for a few weeks. We drove over to their apt. (or ours I should say) and banged and banged on the door. Finally some strange guy answers the door half naked, with a girl and a baby. I asked where my daughter was and he said he thought they went to NY. NY? For what? How? The guy at the door said that she said they could live there until they got back but didn’t know when that would be. Nice so we were paying for others to live there. The place was a disaster! I asked if I could come in and get my numbered prints that I told her she could hang there until she could replace them. So he helped us load them into the car. Now these were worth some money and every year for the first 5 years of our marriage we bought one. They had sentimental value.

About 30 minutes later we get knock on the zoo door. It was a cop! Here the guy that helped us load OUR PRINTS had called her; she called the police and said we stole “her pictures.” The cop said that since our name was not on the lease regardless if we paid the rent on not we can’t just go in and take something. Because of the value it was Grand theft. He told us to return them. I wasn’t about to do that. They were ours but we didn’t have any receipts. Who saves receipts for 10 years? We had to hire a lawyer to protect ourselves from our daughter. We went to court. Our lawyer said we had a hanging judge so therefore it would be better to make a deal. So we did. We had to give her back our prints.

A few days later we see she is selling them on e-bay and we found out that the painter had died and they were worth allot of money.

I called over to the apts and told them that she and her boyfriend were no longer living there and that I was going to stop paying on the apt. I asked if I could go in and get my furniture back. Some of the things were really nice. She said no. Within 90 days the other people were out, and the apts. kept all of our things. I don’t know where they went and I haven’t seen my granddaughter since she was 2 weeks old. Sad for all of us, especially my granddaughter.

We now live on the other side of the map and have no idea where they are.

These are only the highlights of what my kids put both my husband and I through. Children that were loved very much, had everything they asked for, had me at their beckoned call. It had nothing at all to do with the chimps!!!

You know you can’t believe everything you read or watch. The media has a way to make things different. One of the printed sentences was 2 parts of 2 separate sentences which made it more fun for the readers at my expense.

No one knows what goes on behind closed doors except for the people behind them. Even they will lie not to look bad.

You should read my latest posts. Our little chimp died at the little rock zoo. Never a sick day in his life. Zoos are bad! Worse than private owners.