def METHOD_NAME():
    """Test that server is operational and get total animal count."""
    animals = 'v1/animals&offset=0&limit=1'
    URL = path.join(BASE_URL,animals)
    try:
        response = requests.request("GET",URL, headers=headers)
    except Exception as e:
        logger('get_animal_count failed with ', e)
        return -2
    if response.status_code != 200:
        logger("get_animal_count ", response.status_code, "code")
        return -3
    try:
        decoded = json.loads(response.text)
    except json.decoder.JSONDecodeError as e:
        logger("get_animal_count JSON decode failed with", e)
        return -4
    if decoded['success']:
        return decoded['total_count']
    else:
        return -5   # AFAICT, this means URL was bad