Week 36: Helping Hands

Things are going pretty well at the zoo. This week I got to be zoo foreman for the first time. It was nice since instead of waking up and working hard, you wake up and walk around to make sure things look good and function well. Definitely a welcome break.
A few weird things happened this week and all parties will pull through thanks to the generous help of others. First, starting on Sunday, our sea lion, Schmoo II was not doing so well, and she is quite old. After a few days of her not eating, she started not moving either, so we panicked and got some people who were too generous to take her in at a little place called Sea World. They did a full work up and found she had an infection. They were also generous enough to keep her and treat her for the week. That's not so sad news, Schmoo is/will be fine! Next, not so good.
On Monday, the primate class took a field trip to a facility founded by some of our graduates called Zoo to You. It's a wonderful facility with tons of cool animals, including a few we used to house. I stayed back since I'm not in the class and helped take care of the animals at the zoo. We learned on Thursday that their temperature controlled building had burned down and was a total loss, along with 38 animals housed there. Very much a devastating thing to happen since some of our former animals were included in that total. This time, we are the helpers and most students have been excellent at offering their services to this wonderful facility to help them recover their loss and cope with the pain.
A really cool experience also happened this week in that Wednesday, a company called Brockett's came out with some of their poisonious reptiles to talk about them and the safe handling (or not) of them. They also talked a little bit about what they do for movies and some of the jobs they've been on out in the field consulting for Survivor and other shows.
Pictures!: (Michelle- white-faced capuchin, Boo- mountain coati, Wendell- African pygmy goat, Rorke- Abdim's stork)

Week 35: Old Man Starsky

The routine of getting all of these animals fed and entertained is starting to sink in well. I'm enjoying it and actually found this very busy Saturday somewhat enjoyable. All my animals are doing well, and I'm doing well working with them. For the most part my co-trainers are good too. There are a few issues, but we are hoping they resolve themselves in a short matter of time. Next week I'll start bringing my maze and rat to school more regularly since the test for that is only two or three weeks away (I can't remember).
The major happening of this week is that on Wednesday, Starsky, our patagonian cavy was put down. He was really old (13, they generally live to 10!) and he had an infection in his chest. Sadness, but not too much. He was a rather skiddish rodent, so he never had much of an impact on the zoo, but he will be missed. You can reference the picture of him if you've forgotten on week 25's post.
This week's pics: Sampson- bobcat, Tyson- squirrel monkey, Nyani- hamadryas baboon, Harrison- harris hawk.

Week 34: Spring Break!

"Break" is very loosely used here. We didn't have class this week, but we still had to come in and care for the animals, and we still had shows to do. It was a nice preview of how the summer will go once we hit the swing of things. Drama is rearing its ugly head in several places. People are getting way stressed out now and true, or maybe not so true, colors are starting to come out. My feelings about others are starting to change, some better, some worse. I'm definitely enjoying working with my animals, and I'll get some pictures of that up one of these days. Still no sight of a day off, but some days are much lighter than others.
I'm experiencing some drama with my manager duties. The moron who proclaimed himself in charge of the crates is not effectively doing his job to get us ready for the fire season (which is just around the bend). The other two of us have been pushing him to get it done, but he's really dragging his feet and I'm just praying that on May 13 or so we get to hear the happy news that he didn't make the right score on the test and is now kicked out. Until then, we just have to keep nagging him and he'll keep not doing it because he won't ask us for help and it's a large and overwhelming task... Working with idiots really bites (but you knew that already, didn't you?).
Pics: Malaika- African Gray, me and Ghost, me and Nova, the Eye to Eye committee

Week 33: Money!

Money inevitably and most agreeably sucks. However, that is not the reference I'm making. For our Spring Spectacular, we raised more money than ever before, and by a whole lot. We raised over $55,000!! We've apparently never hit even $50,000. Yeah us! We're going to have a good and tough time beating that next year, but we'll certainly do our best.
For the rest of the week, we began officially feeding our animals and really getting into the swing of how this summer is going to be. The second years are all starting to leave for their various projects and destinations across the globe. They will be missed, but they are not officially gone just yet. Graduation is in May, then they're out. It's been lots of fun taking care of everything full time and working with all my animals. There is a little co-trainer drama already rearing it's ugly head, but it's not as horrid as some of the stories I've heard.
My rats are still doing well and I'm totally convinced that Crow is a super genius. I'll post a video as soon as he's learned the whole maze. I'm still spending all day, every day at the zoo, but hubby is being awesomely understanding about it all. I'll get a day off eventually... At least next week is spring break, so no classes, but we still have to do shows. Not really a break, but ah well. Pictures: Gumdrop- Kookaburra, Hollywood- Blue-fronted yellow-headed amazon, Salsa- Catalina macaw, Julietta- Emu