When there are only two people in a room, a man and a woman, and I’m the man, it’s natural for me to want her attention. This was the situation I was in this morning.

After doing a seven-miler, I walked to a coffee shop near my house. The morning rush was over and the woman in front of me, the only other customer in the shop, elected not to purchase the caramel cinnamon roll because it was too big.

After she took a chair in the seating area, I ordered my usual 12-ounce mocha and for the first time ever, a caramel cinnamon roll.

I sat a couple tables away, noticing she had a top with stylized lettering on her sleeve that read AFS. I offered an apology for interrupting her reading of The Inlander and asked if AFS stood for Awesomely Fast Sprinter.

She said it was natural for me to think of a running-related term after I mentioned I was a runner, but AFS stood for the company she owned, Animal Fulfillment Specialists.

After a few minutes of chat, I told her the caramel cinnamon roll was beyond delicious and offered to share. Her shy smile told me it was okay to move to her table.

She had flown in from the East Coast a couple days earlier. Her company uses unusual animals to provide unique experiences for people. She was arranging a wagon pulled by a zebra, a musk ox, a camel, and an alpaca for a 16-year-old’s birthday party.

When I remarked on the diversity of the wagon-pulling team, she said that was only the start. Riding in the wagon with the birthday celebrants would be capybaras, Peruvian ferrets, ocelot kittens, and long-haired fedoras.

When I questioned her apparent mistake, she said in the southern Brazilian state of San Rio Escalana, natives know that long-haired fedoras are not hat wear.

As I departed, I asked if she’d like to go on a drive in the country sometime and identify animals for me. She broke into a smile and shook my hand. “I have lots of experience with that. I’m a great animal identifier.”