The Avocado Drive Zoo: At Home with My Family and the Creatures We've Loved
Earl Hamner
The Avocado Drive Zoo is a warm and personal, yet humorous, recounting of how Earl Hamner, his wife, Jane, and their children have lived with and loved the animals in their lives. From the beginning, Hamner and his wife shared an uncommon love and respect for animals. As their family grew, so did the number of their pets. By the time they moved to Hollywood and settled into a lovely residence on Avocado Drive, their home was virtually a zoo.
From their earliest days when Earl was bitten by Jane's possessive cocker spaniel pup, Clementine, upon proposing marriage, animals have been an important part of their lives. Among these have been: 12 box turtles from Virginia; bantam hens and roosters and a baby chick named Blackie; Talmadge the mouse whose gluttony ended an unusual relationship with the family; Gus the ugly dog whose amorous inclinations brought on his early demise; various wild birds; Willie the family rat; Yarrow the white labrador from Vermont; a family of coyotes that put the Hamner family in conflict with the law; an alligator; Surprise the cat who almost decimated their family of pet rats; Raymond the rabbit and George the guinea pig, who were soul and crate mates; Sandy, a dog of indeterminate ancestry; and a host of other unnamed pets and critters.
The Avocado Drive Zoo is filled with the warmth, love, and respect the Hamner family has for the animals they have known. By the end of this wonderful, charming book, it is obvious that not only have animals enriched the Hamner family's life, they are a resource for all families, providing parents and children with opportunities to grow in love, understanding, and respect for one another — and for the creatures who share our world.
"Enlivened with plenty of anecdotes about the author's early script-writing career and his brood's activities in California, this memoir provides a sweet, humorous take on family life." —Publishers Weekly
 | EARL HAMNER is best known as the creator and producer of the Emmy Award-winning series The Waltons. The producer of Falcon Crest and other television series, he is the author of Spencer's Mountain, The Homecoming, The Avocado Drive Zoo, and Goodnight John-Boy. TONY ALBARELLA is a freelance writer whose work appears in several magazines and who serves on the board of directors of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation. He lives in Woodbridge, New Jersey |
$16.95, Hardcover
ISBN-10: 1-58182-020-8 (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58182-020-1 (Hardcover)
Hardcover Currently Available
