Note: Every now and then, I feature a story about someone who truly lives an inspirational life, one defined by their passion and purpose. If you or someone you know fits this description, please send me a note at: mail@3fatbirds dot com with the subject line “Inspirational”.
Dexter Osborn is living a life of passion and purpose.
As the owner of A Grizzly Experience, a traveling show that teaches audiences about grizzly bears all over the country, Dexter epitomizes the ideal of doing what you love for a living. With three live grizzly bears accompanying him, Dexter and his wife Megan are on the road six to eight months every year teaching what they know best: grizzly bears.
Tonk is eight, the oldest of the three bears, followed by Yogi, his brother, who is two years old. A third bear named BooBoo is only eight months old, “and even though he weighs only fifty pounds, he’s the one that scares me the most,” Dexter laughs as he feeds Tonk another marshmallow.
The reason?
“Being the youngest, he is the most likely to draw on his natural bear instincts while I’m training him,” Dexter says. “The others are used to the travel schedule, the routines and the audiences. BooBoo is still learning.”
Dexter Osborn has a warm, friendly, teddy bear face and a ready smile. He is calm and attentive as the two bears, weighing more than 900 pounds collectively, romp and wrestle around the exhibit area. When I asked him how he got started in this business, he said, “I came from a broken home. At the age of 12, I started helping out at a local zoo whose owner took me in and gave me a purpose. I got experience with several large animals including elephants and big cats, but my heart has always been with bears.”
The Osborn family lives on eight acres in Naples, Florida, two of which are the bears’ exclusive habitat. They have a lot of room to roam, but they also enjoy an air conditioned building with a pool for those hot days that inevitably come in Florida.
Dexter Osborn believes that bears in captivity help save bears in the wild. His business is grounded in education, and because of the rigorous licensing required for people who work with wild animals, he takes his work very seriously. Of course he has to deal with the occasional person or group who believes keeping animals in captivity is exploitative, but that kind of controversy comes with the territory.
Readers of this blog know all too well that when you know in your heart you are doing what you are meant to do with your life, you are bound to come across dream stealers now and again. This is what inspires me most about Dexter Osborn: despite the long hours, the trials of traveling, and the challenges of being the primary caretaker of three wild animals 24/7, he always has a smile on his face because he is doing what he loves. Working with bears is certainly not an easy life. It takes a huge commitment of time and energy, but he wouldn’t have things any other way.
”This isn’t a career, it’s a lifestyle,” he says, scratching Tonk’s belly as the bear rolls on his back and grabs his paw, knowing a marshmallow reward is only seconds away.
Of anyone living a passionate life, Dexter Osborn knows this for sure!
