Week 52: Semester 3 = Over

Yea! The summer finally ended! I'm an official second year! We have first years! It's all been pretty crazy this week. It was orientation week, but I don't feel like I'm very oriented for my new semester. I've learned mabye 5 first year's names and I'm really not sure what my class schedule looks like next week. Projects are closing in and just around the corner, and still, no one has any clue where they are going to be unless they are going to the marine mammals conference (FYI, this is not me). My buddy is really cool and we are likely to hang out frequently. My roommate is also awesome still as I've gotten to know her better. Been a little lonely without the hubby around, but I've also been fairly busy and exhausted all week too, so it all works out. My turnovers are going well and I'm almost finished with all of them. We start feeding the new ones this week, so that means so long to all my old semester assignments. They will be missed (well, most of them...)! Classes start next week, then we'll see what this whole crazy semester will really be like.

Week 51: VACATION!

Yea! I spent the week in Chicago with my family. Very relaxing, very nice. Found out we got our eagle back ups, and I also got assigned to Boo, one of our mountain coati sisters. I contributed to scientific research (and was paid for it), babysat, and watched a lot of hulu. Suckily, I got a 24 hour bug on Thursday night, so Friday was totally ruined and my flight home wasn't so much fun either. Came home to our new room mate, who seems to be pretty awesome! It's good to be back now and see my kitties again. Sadly, have to wait another week to see the hubby...

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.

Week 49: A Light?

Vacation nears ever closer, I can almost taste it. (Yes, maybe I am obsessing over this a little at this point.) Things just keep cropping up and I just keep having to deal with them. I actually had a dream where I exploded at a bunch of classmates to just leave me alone for a week so I can go on vacation! I got sick this week too, which really made it all crappy. Thanks for that hubby! Training behaviors are coming along alright, and my final is next week. He grades easy at least... Laramie has been getting steadily better but we'll be doing a better assessment at the end of the week. I'm still fairly out of it from the sickness, so I'm going to end it there.

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!