Week 48: Spoke Too Soon

Remember how I said everyone was healthy and happy? Yeah, ignore that. Schmoo, the sea lion, is having issues witht that flipper infection again. The new thing is that Laramie, the golden eagle, got a blood infection. We are trying to get more solid information on exactly what is wrong with her, but the tests are taking time to come back. In the mean time, it would appear that all eagle trainers are pitching in for her care. Looks like next week is busy!
I do feel like my schedule is slowing down a little. No more classes, just a few appointments to keep here and there. The heat is just brutal still. I find myself sitting in the computer lab catching up on TV with hulu (amazing site). Training is going well, I think I've found the way to finish off Kissu's behavior, but I'm still stuck on Benji. Hopefully I'll have another epiphany like I did with Kissu. There is sadness in the fact that some of these animal assignments are coming to a close and we are starting to pick new ones for the fall. I'll be keeping Ghost and the vervets, but I'll be loosing my big cuddly kitty, Kissu, and Chance, and Nova, and Nuez. I'm sure I'll love my new animals, and that the new trainers for these guys will be great!
Meanwhile, there's only two weeks until I'm on vacation! I need to start pulling the house together so it's all ready for our new roomie who will arrive while I'm gone. Yea vacation!

Week 47: Break From Classes

This week our last formal lecture-style class ended, Primate behavior. We finished up with a field trip to the Santa Barbara zoo to see their Bolivian titi monkeys, gorillas, and gibbons. Then we took a little quiz and it was over like that! No more sitting in classrooms again until August! Yeah! I also had my last zoo day for the summer at the LA zoo working in the enrichment department. I stayed up in their little secluded workshop with some pretty nifty people, mostly volunteers, and made some cool toys for the animals! However, there is still about three weeks left until my vacation...:( I have noticed that a few people that have returned from their earlier vacations are already crapping out again, so I feel good about my choice for the last week.
It shouldn't be so bad anymore now that people aren't in classes and we only have to worry about shows and getting our animals fed through the day! So far everything/everyone is staying healthy and cool despite the super hot temps! And we'll all float on OK...

Week 46: Making it Through

People started leaving on vacations this week, so the soupy-ness of this summer is starting. With fewer people, everything takes more time, especially area. I have more animals to feed generally and the heat is starting to get bad. It's really wearing me down. I'm starting to wish I had taken an earlier vacation, but I know it'll be very much worth it once I get to go just before the semester starts. I started a new training method with Kissu, and it's working beautifully! Now I think I'll get this done for sure!
I had another zoo day in LA on Saturday working the South American primates string. It was very awesome. I got to do lots of interacting with the animals and I watched the keeper do lots of training sessions with all of them. The spider monkeys were super adorable, but the howler monkey was my favorite. She was sad since her mate died a few weeks ago, but very cool. The leopard was very awesome too, but we didn't do a whole lot with him.
My philosophy for this month is really to just get through it as painlessly as possible. The heat is horrid, but I love my animals, and I love trying to keep them cool with good frozen things! So, hopefully we'll all make it through together and in one piece!

Week 45: Fun Times in LA

We had our first run of our gameshow themed scripted show this week and it went very well! Other than that, the first part of the week was nothing special. On Thursday, we went to the LA zoo to get a look at their primates. It was pretty interesting, but nothing I can't easily see on a zoo day. On Friday though, we went to Universal Studios! For free! We went in to check out the animal show they run there, which employs mostly our graduates. I got to hold their 5 year old orangutan! The rest of the day we just goofed around the park (there's not much there, I don't recommend paying for that...). On Saturday, I had my first LA zoo day working the bongo string. It was not very exciting. Just lots of raking. Since hoofstock animals are generally afraid of the world, I didn't get to do really anything with them. No petting, just poop cleaning. Hopefully my next days will be more exciting. This month is going to be crazy. I have somthing to do every Saturday, and they are all day-long events. Hopefully some of my Sundays will be open.

Week 44: Momma Mia!

I had my training mid-terms this week, and I did great! Kissu got me a 95, and Benji got me a 100! This means, of course, that Gary will likely expect that since I'm making such great progress, the behaviors should be finished by the finals...poop. Nah, I'll be pretty good. The final in training lecture is next week!!!
We really had a pretty chill week. No shows. There was Jr. Safari camp that started, so there are small-ish children running about the zoo all day now, but that's ok, we don't have to babysit them!
We also had a meeting with staff and our fellow leads for the different areas (remember way back when I had second years, and they were teaching us how to do the different areas? That's what a lead is). I will be a lead in the carnivore training compound! Yea! That means that once we have first years, the only area I will do (when I have area) is carns!
However, the bestest best part of this week was that on thursday, my mom came to see me! It's been over a year! I showed her all around the zoo and all my amazing animals and she had a blast! It was short, but excellent! (sorry guys, no pics this week...)

Week 43: Oh Dunny boy...

This was a pretty cool week. The script for our show is all done and turned in; should be pretty good. Training is going well too. I've changed my strategy with Benji, so I'm starting over essentially and my mid-term is next week... It's all good.
This week was also full of some pretty cool field trips. On Thursday, I went to the Playboy mansion. That's right, one of Hugh Hefner's properties. Bunnies and playmates live there (well, actually just his girl friends...). We got a tour of all their very cool bird species (lots of horn bills). And they have some primates as well (spider monkey, 50 squirrel monkeys). We saw all of the grounds around the house, and saw the cool little game room and the grotto! I thought it was pretty cool over all and those are my pictures down below.
On Friday, we went to the International Gibbon Conservation Center. It's not as fancy as it sounds. It's one guy that has collected some of the rarest species of gibbons on the Earth and is working to breed them and works to conserve them in the wild with foreign dignitaries. He's also pretty crazy... I got pics, but can't post them, so remind me to show you when you come visit. I can let you hear some of the cool songs the gibbons sing.
On a very sad note, Dunny was put down this week, as I said would happen in my last post. Walter seems to be holding up alright. Dunny will be missed...
(Pics: Me, holding Hef's $10k Hyacinth macaw; Hef's personalized Hollywood square; and a couple of cool horn bills)

Week 42: BLEH!

Classes are good. Training is going well. We have a mid-term next week and it should be fine. A sad decision was made this week to put Dunny, our Scottish highland cow down next week. It has been found that he has some genetic issues with his legs/joints and is in massive pain, and there's nothing we can do about it. Much sadness there.
On an up note, we took a field trip in primates to "Animal Guys" and it was fun. We got to pet a porcupine and hang out with a siberian lynx. One of the guys even gave me a hook up with a potential project, maybe even job, for a vegas magic show. Sorry this post is short, and without pics for now, but I hope to correct that soon. We are experiencing issues with our internet connections and are going to end them soon anyways, so things might be a little more touch and go here as I'll be relying on the school's internet access.

EDIT: Here's some pics from Animal Guys: (Gray fox, me and a north american porcupine, me and a 3-toed sloth, siberian lynx)