At the opening of Morphs & Milestones’ new location at 74B Main St. in Francestown Feb. 4, a toddler reached tentatively out to pet Benni, a rehabilitated iguana. Within a few minutes, the toddler was confidently stroking the animal’s warm, soft skin, and even fed her a leafy green snack.

“That moment right there — that is what we’re looking for,” said Morphs & Milestones founder Nathan Monty. “That moment where we can have a kid say, ‘Wow that is so cool!’ To see that connection, that is what it is all about. Children spend time with these animals and they realize we are not so different.”

Morphs & Milestones evolved out of  the Monty family’s creation of a stimulating environment for their younger child, Autumn Rose, who has a rare chromosomal condition called DiGeorge syndrome.

“People with DiGeorge syndrome have a chromosome missing in every strand of DNA in their body, and as a result, typically have numerous medical problems, including heart, kidney and parathyroid glands, among other things,” Monty said. “Autumn Rose is nonverbal, and for many years, she could not communicate at all.”

Due to the highly specialized testing required, Autumn Rose did not receive a correct diagnosis until she was around 8 years old. Monty said Autumn’s paraprofessional at ConVal, Jean LaFleur, worked closely with the family for years to find ways to connect with Autumn.

“Autumn wasn’t engaging with the curriculum they had. Then for some reason, on YouTube, we came across a video of a snake, and she was just really fascinated with it,” Monty said. “After Autumn saw that video, we noticed she was more engaged when she was looking at her flashcards for school. She kept going back to the videos of reptiles, and we didn’t know why. She learned more in two weeks than she had in the previous semesters, and her paraprofessional said to us, ‘What are you doing? Keep doing it!’ I had no idea what we were doing; I just wanted my daughter to be OK.”  

The family started to create an environment incorporating reptiles to try to engage Autumn. Soon, they were able to start teaching Autumn ASL, and she can now communicate fluently. 

“A lot of people think we started Morphs because we wanted to rescue and rehabilitate reptiles, but that just ended up happening kind of as a sideline. The mission is to reach children and adults with disabilities, and these animals are the way that we do that,” Monty said.

“Morphs” refers to morphology, which is a common feature of reptile evolution, while “Milestones” refers to change and development of people with special needs.

“We have found through this entire journey that people with autism, or developmental delays, or chromosomal issues like Down syndrome, for some reason, these animals really speak to them,” Monty said. “People misunderstand these animals, and they are a little harder to engage with. It’s harder to read them because they way their faces are structured, their expressions can’t change. Maybe people who are a little different can understand that.” 

The Monty family knew that if reptiles could help Autumn Rose, they could help others as well. Morphs & Milestones began to visit schools and programs for children and adults with special needs. As word about “reptile guy” spread, people began to contact the family about taking in reptiles who needed homes.

“There is no infrastructure for animals like this who need help,” Monty said. “There is infrastructure for dogs and cats and horses, but for snakes and lizards and turtles, people don’t know where to go. When someone dies or leaves these animals abandoned, often no one will take them.” 

Local police departments and Fish and Game agents now contact Morphs & Milestones if they are called in to situations with abandoned or abused reptiles. 

“In one case, a gentleman had passed away, and he had snakes, and the family did not know what to do with them,” Monty said, “We have had law enforcement bring us very damaged animals. We have animals with broken backs, who who starving, who are burned, left with no food or water for months. We’ve had Fish and Game bring us snakes hiding in the rafters of an abandoned home.” 

Monty points out Chorizo,  a blue-tongued skink native to northern Australia, happily eating raspberries in her enclosure. 

“Most of these animals were terrified when we got them. Our iguana was found in a birdcage, in an attic, with no light, and she was burned from her heating unit,” Monty said. “She could not be more gentle and sweet.” 

The Monty family has noticed that their different “animal ambassadors” prefer different family members. Some prefer Nathan, some prefer mom Brenda, and some head straight for older brother Damian. 

“We started out with a small number of ambassadors, and we worked out of our home, but we quickly outgrew that,” Monty said. “We had incidences where people were dropping off animals on our doorstep, which wasn’t safe for the animals, and wasn’t safe in general. A big concern is that we want to provide an appropriate environment for these animals.”

Monty and his family stress that the purpose of Morphs & Milestones is not entertainment, but education and connecting with people with disabilities. The organization now has two missions – education and therapeutic outreach, and rescue and rehabilitation of abandoned and abused reptiles. Rehabilitated animals are available for adoption on the Morphs & Milestones website. 

“We actually turn down contracts for parties. We would not put these animals in any situation that would make them uncomfortable or make them seem like objects pure entertainment, like we’re a circus,” Monty said. “These animals are a lot more like us than most people realize.” 

Looking around the new plant-filled space full of healthy, happy reptiles and curious visitors, Monty said he never imagined creating Morphs & Milestones.

“I just wanted to help my daughter,” he said. 

Morphs & Milestones is now open to the public during certain hours at their new facility on Main Street in Francestown. For more information or to inquire about an educational presentation, go to morphsandmilestones.com/.