Wild Arizona(bite this Marty Stouffer)

Mike spends most of his working days at the helibase located on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Mostly whiling away the hours between medivacs and short haul rescues and fighting wild land fires by reading, riding his bike, reloading bullets, and holding down the couch.


Some days though he really goes to work. This is the stuff he truly enjoys.
He gets to mix his love of flying with his love of the outdoors and wildlife.


Papillon contracts their helicopters and pilots(mainly Mike) out to the Arizona Game and Fish.
Recently they were over on the Arizona/Nevada border doing a sheep capture to monitor migration with the new road construction around the dam.


Usually they hang some under paid wildlife biologist(gunner) out of the helicopter with a loaded rifle(modified to shoot game nets instead of bullets). This poor guy sits and waits as Mike flies around the desert while another AZ game and fisher acts as the mugger. When they find the poor animal the gunner shoots,

and then the mugger jumps out of a still flying helicopter. After the helicopter lands the gunner then jumps out and runs to help. Normally they draw blood and put on a tracking collar,

and then the animal is released, at which time the unharmed sheep stands and shakes him/herself off and runs back to the herd with nothing more than a great story and a new expensive necklace to show off later that night while grazing with the fam.

But sometimes things don't go as planned,

and the sheep go a little wild,

especially if say, you had previously survived a mountain lion attack,

then all bets are off. At which point the sheep start showing off their moves.

The moonwalk seems to be a favorite,

and the two step with a little shimmy and a twist

always scores extra points with the judges.

and going all Shawn Johnson really works at putting a little fear into the guys that just pushed your fight or flight button really hard.

and if you really want to make those guys wish they had never left the office,

it is always a good idea if you can look'um in the eyes,

while going all kung fu fighting while issuing the dance off challenge


and then step back and watch the pumpkin boogie,

and the gunner/mugger doe-si-doe,

and after obviously winning the great wildlife dance off,

it is always best just to run off into the sunset,

while they dust themselves off.