Week 58: Kissu Check-up

It looks like the E! apperance didn't pan out, which doesn't really suprise me at all. Ah well. This week I continued to get by without a vehicle of my own, which is starting to get very old. Fortunately, I have a good roommate who is willing to deal with it all! Being a lead in area has been interesting, getting to know various people I haven't met yet and learning more about ones I do know.

The coolest part of my week was on Friday, we knocked-down Kissu, my summer mountain lion assignment. All trainers, past and present got to help out and watch everything and it was very interesting. The whole thing ended up taking around three hours, which was way longer than I expected, but we did a full check up as well as some closer looks at things that we found odd. The origional reason for the knock-down was a bump we saw in his mouth and we weren't sure what it was, so we were trying to figure that out, but it had dissapated due to the antibiotics he was put on. Other things we did were: draw blood, cystocentesis (urine sample straight from the bladder), x-rays on his paws and face, palpating the body, cleaned the teeth, ultra-sound on his liver (which seemed abnormal), and a nipple-ectomy. That's right folks, probably one of the strangest things, a nipple-ectomy. We removed his left, first nipple because it had some funky things going on with it, and he's male, so he doesn't need it. Here's some cool pictures of what we did:

Week 57: Drama Class

Not a lot of big or impressive things happened this week. I have no idea if the segment on E! for the fundraiser happened. I've been pretty busy and things have gotten harder since my car was taken by the hubby to replace his broken one.
The first year class has been very interesting so far. I feel that the vast majority of them are highly immature and inexperienced with any type of animal. We had some issues this week with one of them shooting off her mouth a bit too much about things she didn't fully understand and she got a good talking to from the staff about it. That didn't make her very happy, but hopefully it taught her a good lesson. There are a lot of really great first years too though and I'm glad we have most of them around. Things like this also make me wonder how our second years perceived us when we started.

Week 56: So Long, Samburu

Things are still chugging right along. Projects are being planned/worked on, animals are being trained, shows are being performed, and a certain script is still being written. Amidst it all, Samburu, our caracal (pictured below) was put down. He had been having some severe neurological issues (possibly a brain tumor, or some other degenerative disease). He was about 15 years old, so he wasn't a youngster or anything. Very sad still.
All the animals we took from the facility that was in trouble went home this week. Yeah for them still having a home!
In our vet lab, we've started learning about injections and how all that works. I know a lot of it already, but it's always good to get other perspectives and tips.
The highlight of my week was doing the Peacock Foundation's fundraiser on Saturday. It was a blast! Sprinkle's cupcakes were there, so I sampled their tasty treats for free! I also bid in the silent auction and won some gift certificates to a local BBQ joint and then a frozen yogurt place for dessert! Oddly enough, E! network was there to cover the event, so I might be making an apperence on their morning show! It was a great time and I hope I'll have enough time that I could help them out in the future.

Week 55: Someone's On Fire!

I'm sure you have all heard about how southern California is once again on fire. We aren't in trouble, but another facility was so we were housing some of their animals when they had to evacuate. That was really all that happened the first half of the week. On Thursday, I had a zoo day at the LA zoo's health center. It was pretty fun! They were also housing some animals from that same facility, so I helped care for them, and then I got to watch a few medical procedures! My afternoon was occupied by some paper presentations from a few vet students on rotations. Even those were fairly interesting (to me at least...). Speaking of medical papers, I've comitted to my topic for the paper in vet class: Chronic Wasting Disease in Wild Cervid (that means deer, folks) Populations as a Result of Predator Dessimation. That means deer are getting sick out there and part of it is caused by a lack of predators in the wild.
Any who, on Friday, we went on a field trip to Steve Martin's Working Wildlife (no, this is not the actor, and not the bird trainer.). They are amazing! I had the capuchin from the first pirates of the carribean movie crawling on my shoulder, as well as a brown lemur! We saw Bart the bear, a 1,000 lb kodiak grizzly, and some other really cool animals like foxes, lions, chimps, and more! I'll try to figure out how to hook up my new phone so you can see some pics eventually.
On Saturday, myself and a few others went to check out the Peacock Foundation, a group that works with troubled (abused, neglected, homeless) kids and uses animals to help with their therapy. They are having a fund raiser next week and we are going to be walking around with their animals! It's nothing spectacular. No one famous will be there, and their animals are just domestics and a few reptiles, but they are a great organization and I a glad to help out!

Week 54: Let's Get Rolling!

Lots of new developments in classes. I'm in the outreach group going to a juvenile detention center, and we've booked the show! The planning process is slowly beginning for that. I've started training my animals with their behaviors and it's slow going with Bwana, but Mau is picking it up quickly, as I expected. Our vet class gave us an interesting lecture about how to deal with death in our professional lives since it's something we're likely going to be encountering somewhat often. We got some zoo days assigned, and I've got one next week already! Resume class is going strong and it's really good to hear these prospectives from the animal world of job hunting. It's also helping with the setting up of projects. I've got some letters to write already! And on a super up note, we got permission to use the trucks again!
I've joined the spring spec. script committee, and we are flying full throttle to get this thing done. We are now working on a tactful way to whittle down the numbers in the committee from 11 to about 4. Can you imagine writing dialogue with 11 people? I know, it's ridiculous. I think that's my week. So much going on, it's hard to keep it all straight!

Week 53: Semester 4; Second Years!

Our classes started this week and they are going to be really awesome and keep me very busy again this semester. Here is my normal break-down:
Wildlife Education 4/Lab: This is our long awaited out-reach class. That means that instead of the usual kids paying up and coming here for a show, we go to them. We do nine free shows for a few lucky places that range from your average schools to the Ronald McDonald house and a juvenille detention center. I'm really looking forward to seeing how all this goes. In addition, towards the end we also start a bit on a few Spring Spec. plannings and we do the script reveal.
Animal Training 2/Lab: This is a continuation of last semester's training course. This semester we focus on training husbandry behaviors (this means things that allow the animal to assist in its own care, i.e. crating, medical procedures, etc.). For the lab I'm going to train Bwana (turaco) to crate and Mau (pig) to desensitize to ear manipulation and possibly move it forward to a blood draw from the ear vein. This is the class that our big Davis field trip occurs for.
Elementary Vet Procedures 1/Lab: This is taught by our vet. Here we will be learning about the ethical and emotional issues of treating animals, as well as actually discuss diseases and husbandry related issues in the field. We also have a big paper to write as though we were invited to present at a conference on a topic of our choosing. In the lab we will be working with our own zoo animals and assisting in their care, as well as doing some more formal things like dissections.
Second Year #1 Zoo Work Skills: The catch-all class it always is for everything we do at the zoo that doesn't fall under another class.
Zoo Days 2: Same as the summer. We have three zoo days in LA and two in Santa Barbara.
Professional Resumes: This is taught by our primate person (also the projects person). She is very savvy at how to set us up for job success in the real world and this is basically a class where she begins to give us those helpful hints. We will all work on and build resumes and cover letters to use once we graduate. This class is only half the semester and the other half it will continue with interview skills (I'll fill you in on that when it starts).
So, that's my super-busy schedule! Also, it was the hubby's b-day this week, and we celebrated the heck out of it! My buddy cooked us dinner and a cake for him! On Saturday, we went to Marina Del Rey to visit my uncle who I've recently found out has moved here. Now I have more relatives around and they all want to come see the zoo! Always nice to be able to share my really cool life with a few more people who appreciate the animal world!

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.