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Robyn Glover

Many animal-loving kids grow up with the dream of opening their own sanctuary as a haven for rescues. Animal expert Corbin Maxey made that dream a reality when he was just 12 years old. Working with his parents' 55 acres of land, he founded the Cyprus Hill Reptile Reserve in Meridian, Idaho, and his passion for saving exotic animals later helped him land his own local TV show, Live with the Reptile Guy, and several appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, all while he was still in his teens.

"I was the kid who would sit for an hour and watch a motionless alligator sunning themselves [at the zoo]," Maxey, now 20, tells PEOPLE Pets. His reserve shelters 30 different "animal ambassadors," most of whom are rescues who also participate with him in various educational outreach programs for children across the country.

Now Maxey can take all the time he wants to observe an alligator named Soni, who once belonged to a teenage boy who cruelly kept him indoors for over two years. Maxey remembers the telephone call he received from the mother who said she was tired of the alligator traipsing through the kitchen.

"The saddest thing is that his skin was so dry because he wasn't kept in water," says Maxey. When the alligator came to the reserve, he says, "He wouldn't get out of the pool for two weeks. He'd just stay submerged."

One of Maxey's other rescue pets, Scooter the iguana, is an audience favorite who acts as Maxey's co-host on Live with the Reptile Guy, which debuted last year. When Scooter and Maxey first met in 2006, the lizard was "skin and bones" and had parasites around his eyes. He had been given away as a prize at a carnival to a family who fed him a diet of ice cream and spaghetti. Living at the reserve for the past few years with a nice big water source, Scooter has since become quite the "fat happy guy." You'll most often see him bobbing his head up and down, "basically telling everyone he's the big iguana here," says Maxey.

In between traveling for speaking engagements, Maxey now attends Boise State University where he's wrestling with cell biology courses while earning a degree in biology with an emphasis in zoology.

"I want to bring my message to a national level," says Maxey, who believes strongly in animal education, conservation, and responsible pet ownership. And once he scores that degree? "I'd like to do what I do now, but reach more people."

Click here to become friends with Corbin Maxey on PEOPLE Pets.

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Thailan Pham