ME's Zoo: A holiday tradition

Parker City--Most people have a favorite Christmas Tradition.

For many, it's a visit to ME's Zoo near Parker City some time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Some families drive by to see the 180,000 lights that turn the big, old fashioned two-story home, trees, fences and reindeer and other light-strung wire figures into a holiday wonderland.

They look for the ME's Zoo mascot, Omar, the camel. "I think, he dances around because he's excited to be at his usual place by the Nativity scene," said Eileen Oren-Taylor, who co-owns the zoo with her daughter Kim. "But he also likes cotton candy and hot cider!"

Near Omar is the donation box that helps to keep the lights powered each holiday season.

"This year," Eileen said, "Families that drive in to visit the zoo will get to see one of the other of Central Indiana's only two blue-eyed white tigers, Bobbie and Masai (Bobbie's mate). They will perform on alternate nights."

While a variety of other animals will greet visitors, the remaining residents of the zoo will be asleep in their warm winter quarters-in buildings or the woods.

After toasting themselves beside two big bonfires, children will be able to visit Santa and have their photo taken with him in the gazebo amid twinkling lights and garlands of greenery. After they whisper their wish lists, the little ones will be treated to candy canes.

For dreams do come true at 12441 W. Randolph County Road 300-S, where the zoo and farm around it are located.

Show on the road

Take the life of Max Oren and Eileen Hendrix for example. Eileen met Max, her sweetheart, in school. "I never dated anyone else," she said.

They married, went into the entertainment business and had a good life traveling all over the nation with amusement shows. As a child, their daughter, Kim, traveled with them.

Traveling ended when Max became ill with aplastic anemia, a blood disorder, in October 1986. He was told he had only a few weeks to live.

Max was offered experiment treatments that might prolong his life, but that had the potential to cause leukemia.

Friends and neighbors strung more than 10,000 Christmas lights over the house, trees and fences on the 42-acre farm while fearing this might be Max's last holiday season.

The large display attracted attention and thousands of people drove by to see it.

Bedfast three months, Max received weekly blood transfusions. "I put his bed by the window where he could see our pet deer and donkeys," Eileen said, pointing to a window in the large living room.

Designing a zoo

The two talked about how many people had come to see the lights. They knew they'd never go on the road again and wondered if people would drive out to see their animals.

Max and Eileen drew up plans for a zoo using the white barn and outbuilding, the woods and grain fields as living and feeding areas. Then they acquired a few more deer, some llamas, a few pigmy goats, and blue and gold breeder birds.

"There was so much to do out here," Eileen recalled. "No fences were up and none of the cribs were here. We redid the camel building. It was a struggle. We put our life savings into it."

The experiment treatments worked. Max got better.

When he was able to go outside again the Orens and their friends build the zoo Max had dreamed of. It opened in 1988 with 45 animals.

Then, tragedy struck again. In 1989, as his doctors had cautioned, Max was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia.

But he never gave up. On days when he felt up to it, Max spent time with his beloved animals. He fought valiantly, but lost his battle Dec. 20, 1993. Eileen stayed by his side all of the time during his last long stay in the hospital.

"I want you to marry again and be happy," he told her.

Their daughter, Kim Oren, who had been working in Ohio, returned to the area. Eileen, Kim, other family members, friends and the zoo staff keep Max's dream alive by keeping the zoo open and adding to the holiday lights each year. They encourage families to spend time together.

Kim love to travel, but she will be home from Thanksgiving through Christmas, leave about April and be in and out during the summer.

As her parents did, Kim provides basketball, mini-ball and other games at amusement shows and, at a new venue, rib fests.

After Max's death Eileen continued to slowly develop the zoo and grounds.

ME's animals eat a hefty $52,968 worth of food a year, so an "adopt an animal" food program was developed. When J. Robert Taylor, a professor in Ball State University's Department of Architecture, adopted a buffalo and came to look at it, he asked Eileen what the zoo needed.

"A shelter would help," she said. She provided the lumbar. His students built it.

A wedding for the record books

For three or four years after that, Bob and Eileen talked and his students added one project after another to the zoo area.

Finally, Bob and Eileen for a date. She turned him down several times.

"I didn't know what to do," she confessed. "I'd never had a date with anybody but Max."

It took Bob a while to convince Eileen. Their romance flourshed and on March 8, 2003 they were married on the front lawn of the house.

The white tigers, Bobbie and Masai, were best man and maid of honor, and Eileen rode with them to the ceremony in Norma and Jim Cross's antique white carriage.

Their unusual ceremony put them in the Gunniess Book of Records.

Both love the zoo, zoo animals, dogs, cats and antiques. "He loves to see kids come through the zoo gates with smiles on their faces," she said. "He has two sons, Todd, who live in Michigan, and Tom, who lives in Chicago, and five grandchildren. While they get there more often, we see them twice a year."

Open for the holidays

The zoo will be open from 5:30 to 10:30 pm every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and 12-5pm Sunday from Thanksgiving Day through Dec. 18. It is open every day of the next week through Christmas Day.

Admission is $4.50 for children 1-12, and $5.50 for adults.

All money and donations, gift shop sales and admissions are sued to house, feed and care for the animals. The zoo used three vets, one each in Parker City, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, for different species.