Week 75: Friday Left on Saturday

This week was a shorter one with MLK day canceling classes on Monday. No major revelations occurred, classes barely happened with all the animal issues still ensuing. Rehearsals for spring spec are at a crawl with the massive downpour that plagued us all week (actual rain was great, timing was sort of sucky on nature's part...). I'm still trying to figure out when my animals will appear in the show, and what they will be doing so I can start training that.
On Friday, the three little pigs (Larry, Curly, and Mau) were taken back by their owner to hopefully better diagnose and address whatever is wrong with their GI systems. There is a possibility of them not coming back, so we are all holding our breath. And, of course, the blog wouldn't be the same without some more really bad news. On Saturday morning, Friday the raccoon was found in bad shape and she was taken in to be put down. Much sadness, she was the cutest raccoon (I mean that, even though I'm on Buddy, she was cuter!)(Pics: Curly, Friday, Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom--killer whale)

Week 74: The End of a Legend, a Quadruple Whammy

This week was the official, and rocky, kick-off to my last semester here at EATM. I'll start in the traditional break-down of all my new classes I've enrolled in:
Animal Training Practicum: This is a fancy name for our training class, which is just a lab this time. This semester we focus mostly on training behaviors for the Spring Spectacular show, or other fun public interactive things where possible.
Elementary Vet Procedures II/Lab: This is the continuation of last semester's lecture and lab. This time, we present the big paper we wrote last semester in a slide show/talk. Lab is rounded out with blow dart training and gun safety!
Ethical and Legal Issues: This is also called "Applied Animal Ethics". It's taught by a guy from outside the program, but he's been doing it a long time and loves the program. Here we will learn about the different issues about utilizing animals they way they currently are and what all sides of the arguments are so we can better defend the right to do what we do.
Projects: Yep, there's a class for this. This never formally meets, but it's how we get to do all the cool travels we have coming in April!
Second Year #2 Zoo Work Skills: This is the catch-all again. Covers our day-to-day duties on the zoo. Area, day watch, feedings, etc.
Wildlife Education III Lab: This is the class where we are broken into our two casts and start building and rehearsing our fantastic show for Spring Spectacular.
Zoo Days III: Just zoo days again. This time we have two at LA and one at Santa Barbara.
There's your class break-down, now to my actual week:
Started on Sunday with my first zoo day of the semester. I did the Wild Woods string at LA. It was sweet! The guy was really nice and it was lots of fun to hang out and watch the wild dogs be totally nuts. He also helped me by talking about working in zoos and he seems to think that I'd be good in a zoo environment...well, he only knew me for the one day, but we'll see. The rest of the week was insanity with classes and Spring Spec. stuff starting to happen. A lot of my classes were somewhat preempted by all the medical issues our animal population continues to run into. It was decided that on Friday, Legend (our Gray wolf) and the rest of the three sheep would be put down. They were all really old and definitely at the end of their lines. It was a rough day for everyone. I spent that morning taking Buddy, the raccoon, to the vet to be checked out. He has congestive heart failure, so we are playing a waiting game, but also treating him at the same time. Our population continues to shrink... My week ended with another, and my final, LA zoo day. I repeated the Indian rhino string since I didn't get the full experience last time. There was lots of craziness there with things that I am betting they don't want me talking about on the internet, so I won't. I still had a great day and I really enjoyed feeding Jabba, the hippo at the end of it. One more zoo day, and that's all over now! (Pictures: Legend, a sheep, Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom--Tigers)

Week 73: End of Boredom

This is the last week of the winter intersession, so the huge periods of time with nothing to do will be ceasing quite soon. A pretty chill week overall. Nothing died this week, although there were some health scares, but so far everyone/thing is fine. It was good to have the extra time to hang out with the hubby this week, especially since we celebrated our third anniversary! Year 3 is leather, so I was gifted a very useful pair of water-proof boots since my previous pair had died. I gave him a leather-bound photo album full of our honeymoon pictures. Next year is fruit and flowers...that'll be entertaining I bet.
A new bit of info that might start popping up here as time goes on now is job prospects. I actually sent in an application to the Oklahoma City Zoo, the zoo I grew up with. We will see where the job road takes me. It's not maybe my optimal job, but it wouldn't suck either, and hubby is cool with going back to OK. Hopefully I at least get an interview for good practice. I'll keep you posted! (Pictures: Six Flags: Discovery kingdom--a fruit bat, a tamandua, and a bush baby)

Week 72: Winter Wonderland and Frozen Tears

This week the Hubbs and I took a trip to his homeland of Colorado to visit his family and to enjoy the New Year! It was relaxed and low key for the most part, and definitely cold and snowy! I got to meet my nephew for the first time and he won't remember it at all, since he's only a whopping 5 months old. It's cool how fast things grow up though. Overall, it was a good escape from the zoo and a good reconnection to what winter is supposed to feel like. I must admit though, it would have been nice if I had spent a bit of time with my family, but this is the married life. I did have the misfortune of returning home to discover that Sampson, our decrepitly old bobcat (we're talking 22 here!) passed away finally. They expected him to die the summer just prior to us starting the program, and here he hung on this long with chronic renal failure. Very impressive. It was definitely his time, but his adorable puss-face will be missed. (Pictures: Sampson, Elephants at Discovery Kingdom)

Week 71: Of Christmas and Sheep

This was the first week of our break so everything was quite lax. Only had to be around for animal feedings, so nothing super eventful. Second years are starting their vacation/projects weeks, so there's less people around in general as well. Christmas came and went in very low-key fashion. Hubby and I celebrated by having a nice pot-luck meal with some of my friends from school. No major presents, all very quiet and low-key. We were busy looking forward to the next week, when I had vacation!
On a less fun note, sadness came again this week with the passing of Lizzie, one of our four Suffolk sheep. Age was not certain on her, but the sheerer that comes in for them was convinced that she was incredibly old. Le sigh. (Pictures: Sheep [This is Sadie, not Lizzie], festive zoo statue, reindeer from Zoo to You)