Week 50: Bye Bye Baxter

It's been a fairly eventful week prior to my vacation. We got our new training assignments for the fall. I got Bwana (white-cheeked turaco, pictured previously) and Maureen (or Mau, a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, pictured below). I'm pretty excited about both of them. In the fall, we train husbandry behaviors, which means behaviors that allow the animal to participate in its own care (vet procedures, crating, shifiting, etc.). We are starting turn overs now, so I'm learning these two new animals, and I'm teaching others about Kissu, Nuez, and Chance. So far, no one is on Nova, but there will be someone. I've asked for extras too, so I should have one more animal added hopefully.

I had my training final this week, and it went OK. I got a 95% with Benji. I actually changed his behavior to be a "stick 'em up", and he's actually really close to finishing that. Kissu got me an 85%, but I'm OK with that. The tough thing is that you never really know if you got that grade because the animal just isn't progressing and it's their "fault", or if that means Gary thinks you should have done more and the animal should have been farther along. Ah well. I'm pleased; still get an A!

Now, the sad thing. Baxter, our last Yucatan mini pig, was put down on Wednesday. He was super old and having extreme joint pain (basically no cartilage left...). It was sad to see him go, but not unexpected or overly sad to me. He was pictured in previous posts if you don't remember.