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My Story
| Gertrude and I just before filming "Groundhog Day" |
| Fred, Miquella,myself and HIckory |
| I Miss You Dad, very much. |
| Rhadi and myself |
I read somewhere, "Learn the language of the animals and you will know the voice of God ", to
me this makes perfect sense. God created the animals and they are his purest form. They
harbor no ill will. Live day by day. Think nothing of the past and very little about the future.
People ask me about my life all the time, I guess because what I do is different from the
"norm". The first thing I tell everyone and I mean this, is if I die tomorrow, I will have lived as full
a life as is possible and I have no regrets. I have always loved life, I live life doing what I love I
always have, I have always had the luxury of knowing what my dreams were and following
them. I do what I do because I get up every morning and look forward to caring for and sharing
my love for my animals, with others. I believe in God, I believe in the good in people, my
biggest wish is that on the 6 oclock news, they would show only the good things that
people have done and the people who did bad things would be stricken from the
records, like the Indians use to do.
As far as I can tell, I was born to work with animals. My mother wrote in my baby
book, "Kimber follows the cat and dog around constantly." There you have it, fate. I
was born in North Carolina. Although, my father was in the Air Force and we traveled extensivley
my first 7 years we finally settled in Jefferson, NC. I still consider the mountains home.
I spent most of my formative years growing up in Sunnyside Park. I loved the baseball games
with the neighborhood kids, we would play until it was impossible to see the ball at night. It
was a innocent time and wonderful place to grow up. Grown up things were kept from children
and we grew up protected from the news of the world , enjoying long,full and rich childhoods, I
believe I had the childhood all children should have. We did not yet have video games and we
use to invent all kinds of games to play outside. I still talk to my next door neighbors, because
there children where in our house so much and us in theirs, that we were more like a big
family, than neighbors. I can say I truly love them all. We still talk about the great childhoods we
had, we roamed the hills, tramping off miles into the country on weekends and camping, both
boys and girls, four out of five nights in the summer.
The outdoors were my backyard and I felt right at home. If you could have talked to my father, he
would have told you how I brought every form of critter home, from injured birds, including
owls, crows, and a crane, to baby squirrels and rabbits, rescued from certain death at the paws
of our family cat , Mittens. When I was old enough to drive, I bought a motorcycle and worked at
the county park. On weekends I would ride over there with my small dog, Rowdy, and a baby
pet goose named Waddles, tucked in my Jacket or knapsack. I would rent out the paddle boats
and help the caretaker mow. I thought it was the best job I could have.
Once I finished high school I started college to be a Veterinarian, but soon realized although it
was a most noble profession, it was not for me. I wanted a job where I could care for animals,
but I could also play with them and talk to them. Fate would step in here and I would leave
college to go and work as an apprentice at the largest Arabian Horse Farm on the east coast,
Sitting Rock Arabians in Madison, NC. This is where I met the person who would be my mentor
and second father for the next 8 years.
Andre Skarbecki was the manager of the farm, he was a big blond man, with a German Accent
and a compassion for animals I had never seen anywhere else. He said to me , "When you are
working with animals you must have love , understanding and patience and always start with a
whisper." Words I still live by when working with animals to this day. Andre had a dream to
have a Lion Act in the circus and I fell in love with that dream. He eventfully left the horse farm
and I went with him, I guess you could say we both ran away and joined the circus. I helped
him train and care for 8 lions and we were soon criss crossing the nation and Canada. When I
had finally out grown the circus, I moved on to train big cats, leopards, lions, and tigers for
magic shows, commercials and movies. This lead to rescuing unwanted exotic animals, and
all of the animals I have today, were once abandoned or abused. More animals lead to finding
new ways to educate the public about animals. I have been featured on "Jack Hannas Animal
Adventures, I have been on the Today Show with Jim Fowler 3 times, I have been on David
Lettermen twice, just to mention a few. I have just finished 4 seasons of Magic in Pigeon Forge,
Tenn. I now live in Pigeon forge with all my creatures including the White and Orange tiger I
trained for the magic show. Which pretty much brings me to today. As you can tell I have lived a
charmed life, blessed with all the riches our lord wants us to experience,
I still pray every night and thank God everyday for every simple pleasure. If I am not working on
a film, or doing wild life education tours, or playing with big cats, you can find me at home
working with my animals , feeding them, cleaning out stalls , cleaning enclosures and just lying
in the grass surrounded by nature and trying to understand the language of animals.
me this makes perfect sense. God created the animals and they are his purest form. They
harbor no ill will. Live day by day. Think nothing of the past and very little about the future.
People ask me about my life all the time, I guess because what I do is different from the
"norm". The first thing I tell everyone and I mean this, is if I die tomorrow, I will have lived as full
a life as is possible and I have no regrets. I have always loved life, I live life doing what I love I
always have, I have always had the luxury of knowing what my dreams were and following
them. I do what I do because I get up every morning and look forward to caring for and sharing
my love for my animals, with others. I believe in God, I believe in the good in people, my
biggest wish is that on the 6 oclock news, they would show only the good things that
people have done and the people who did bad things would be stricken from the
records, like the Indians use to do.
As far as I can tell, I was born to work with animals. My mother wrote in my baby
book, "Kimber follows the cat and dog around constantly." There you have it, fate. I
was born in North Carolina. Although, my father was in the Air Force and we traveled extensivley
my first 7 years we finally settled in Jefferson, NC. I still consider the mountains home.
I spent most of my formative years growing up in Sunnyside Park. I loved the baseball games
with the neighborhood kids, we would play until it was impossible to see the ball at night. It
was a innocent time and wonderful place to grow up. Grown up things were kept from children
and we grew up protected from the news of the world , enjoying long,full and rich childhoods, I
believe I had the childhood all children should have. We did not yet have video games and we
use to invent all kinds of games to play outside. I still talk to my next door neighbors, because
there children where in our house so much and us in theirs, that we were more like a big
family, than neighbors. I can say I truly love them all. We still talk about the great childhoods we
had, we roamed the hills, tramping off miles into the country on weekends and camping, both
boys and girls, four out of five nights in the summer.
The outdoors were my backyard and I felt right at home. If you could have talked to my father, he
would have told you how I brought every form of critter home, from injured birds, including
owls, crows, and a crane, to baby squirrels and rabbits, rescued from certain death at the paws
of our family cat , Mittens. When I was old enough to drive, I bought a motorcycle and worked at
the county park. On weekends I would ride over there with my small dog, Rowdy, and a baby
pet goose named Waddles, tucked in my Jacket or knapsack. I would rent out the paddle boats
and help the caretaker mow. I thought it was the best job I could have.
Once I finished high school I started college to be a Veterinarian, but soon realized although it
was a most noble profession, it was not for me. I wanted a job where I could care for animals,
but I could also play with them and talk to them. Fate would step in here and I would leave
college to go and work as an apprentice at the largest Arabian Horse Farm on the east coast,
Sitting Rock Arabians in Madison, NC. This is where I met the person who would be my mentor
and second father for the next 8 years.
Andre Skarbecki was the manager of the farm, he was a big blond man, with a German Accent
and a compassion for animals I had never seen anywhere else. He said to me , "When you are
working with animals you must have love , understanding and patience and always start with a
whisper." Words I still live by when working with animals to this day. Andre had a dream to
have a Lion Act in the circus and I fell in love with that dream. He eventfully left the horse farm
and I went with him, I guess you could say we both ran away and joined the circus. I helped
him train and care for 8 lions and we were soon criss crossing the nation and Canada. When I
had finally out grown the circus, I moved on to train big cats, leopards, lions, and tigers for
magic shows, commercials and movies. This lead to rescuing unwanted exotic animals, and
all of the animals I have today, were once abandoned or abused. More animals lead to finding
new ways to educate the public about animals. I have been featured on "Jack Hannas Animal
Adventures, I have been on the Today Show with Jim Fowler 3 times, I have been on David
Lettermen twice, just to mention a few. I have just finished 4 seasons of Magic in Pigeon Forge,
Tenn. I now live in Pigeon forge with all my creatures including the White and Orange tiger I
trained for the magic show. Which pretty much brings me to today. As you can tell I have lived a
charmed life, blessed with all the riches our lord wants us to experience,
I still pray every night and thank God everyday for every simple pleasure. If I am not working on
a film, or doing wild life education tours, or playing with big cats, you can find me at home
working with my animals , feeding them, cleaning out stalls , cleaning enclosures and just lying
in the grass surrounded by nature and trying to understand the language of animals.
| In Memorial Feb. 13 , 1930- May 27, 2007 George "Corkey" Miller |
