TACOMA, WASHINGTON - It was the first reunion in more than seven years for Joyce Barr and Ivan the gorilla. <br>
<br>
She waved and hollered across a moat. Ivan stared, then started hooting and slapped his massive hand against a gate of his enclosure at Zoo Atlanta. <br>
<br>
``He remembered me, no doubt about it,'' Barr told The News Tribune of Tacoma. <br>
<br>
``This made me feel really good, because I could see that he's happy and he looks so good,'' she said of her visit. ``It's put my mind to rest.'' <br>
<br>
Barr helped care for Ivan when he lived at Tacoma's B&I Shopping Center. Prior to last weekend's visit, she hadn't seen him since shortly after his 1994 transfer to the Atlanta zoo. <br>
<br>
Ivan left the Northwest following a three-year ``Free Ivan'' campaign waged by animal welfare activists and primate experts who insisted a store was no place for an intelligent animal like a gorilla. <br>
<br>
Ivan's owners resisted the pressure to give him up. Barr and fellow caretaker Tonya Hill were caught in the middle. <br>
<br>
They were Ivan's daily caretakers for years, feeding him his favorite foods and coming up with games to keep him active and engaged. <br>
<br>
``We were his family,'' Barr said. ``We just wanted what was best for him.'' <br>
<br>
Ivan spent 27 years displayed in a concrete compound at B&I. <br>
<br>
Hill and Barr made the trip to Atlanta with Ivan and spent several days with him at his new home. <br>
<br>
Keepers estimate his age at 40. Some captive gorillas have lived into their 50s. <br>
<br>
Bernie Gregory, the zoo's lead gorilla keeper, agreed that Ivan recognized Barr. ``It seemed to go well,'' he said. <br>
<br>
``He looks great,'' Barr said. ``He's slimmed down. <br>
<br>
``It just seems to me he's getting his wildness back,'' she added. <br>
<br>
Ivan lives with four female gorillas in the Atlanta zoo's lush habitat. He hasn't yet fathered any offspring but Barr said she hasn't given up hope.
