A modern-day Dr. Dolittle

When Joe Kenney was a toddler, his mother, Diane, frequently took him outside his Abington home to look for frogs, bugs, or anything else that might distract him from asking for snacks. Because he had severe diabetes, he had to be kept to a strict eating schedule.

After they learned to live with the challenges of diabetes, his parents and preschool teachers discovered that Kenney also showed signs of dyslexia, a learning disability that makes it difficult to read. Once again, animals helped him through.

"I was always looking for lizards, snakes, and whatever else I could find," said Kenney, now 17. "Once I found them, I wanted to keep them and make them a home. When I became frustrated with reading and homework, I'd let out my frustration by cleaning the animals' cages."

Now, in what was once the garage, he has more than 40 reptiles, many of them exotic, as part of an educational reptile-show business called Craz-zy Critters.

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