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)

Week 70: San Diego Trip! Semester 4=Over

Somewhat bright and early we left the zoo on Sunday headed for San Diego. On Sunday, we hit a couple of outreach companies in the area that are run by some graduates. They were both very different companies but they work together a lot on things. It wasn't really anything new or special to me. We then found our nice and fancy resort hotel at a steal of a price and made camp.
On Monday, we went to the fantastic San Diego zoo and got to see some great shows and listen to some interesting and very important people. Bird/animal trainer extraordinaire, Steve Martin, of Natural Encounters Inc. is running a contract show there and we got to talk to him for quite a while and it was rather enlightening. Despite my general dislike of birds, I would deal with it if I could work with him. His company also does a lot of consultations with zoos and other organizations, so the work would eventually not be limited to birds. The new Elephant Odyssey Exhibit at the zoo is fantastic and we got a little behind the scenes look (not that there's much you can't see anyways) at how they run and a good talk with a keeper about their whole operations. Still an awesome zoo to see if you haven't yet!
Tuesday brought us to the San Diego zoo's wild animal park. Here they have a training compound where they run their cheetahs and you can currently pay a fee to see this as well. Look out though because in about a year, they are going to start offering it daily and for free! We got a good talk with all the trainers there about cheetahs and all the other wacky animals they work with. We then went on a tram ride to see the unique multi-species Africa exhibit where the animals are just mingling as they would in the wild (minus the predator factor). After that we found the new mule ride area and talked to the wranglers there. The mule ride takes visitors near the Africa exhibit, but then goes on a longer trail through the hills nearby. During the ride, they talk about the animals in the exhibit as well as the local landscapes and very endangered habitat they ride through. They are contracted to the zoo through Zoo to You, a company run by some of our grads. After our talk, I stayed and talked to the wranglers for a bit and I think they would have offered me a job on the spot had they not just hired. Still, it's a good prospect for a summer job if I can't find one.
Finally, Wednesday came and we got to go to Sea World! I've never been to one before so I was a little excited to see how this went. We got the royal treatment in the morning and were whisked around from stadium to stadium to talk to trainers about the sea lions, belugas, polar bears, otters, dolphins, and of course, the killer whales. After that, they gave us the afternoon to enjoy the park. We saw all the shows, of course, and it was really neat, despite the extreme cheese factor. I got to see the Anheiser-Bush clydesdales on their last day. The park was recently sold to another company, so the clydesdales had to go. It was a pretty good day, and I got to pet a dolphin for the first time! I found it all interesting, however, I also know none of that is for me as swimming/water creatures are not my thing.
On Thursday, we checked out of our hotel and hit the road. We made a detour to see Have Trunk, Will Travel, a most excellent elephant company. Any elephant you have seen in movies/TV/advertising or any elephant rides you see on the west coast area, it's them. Their facility is gorgeous and I would give my right arm to work there! The people were very nice and the elephants were cared for with the utmost precision and you could see it in everything they do.
We got home and then I had one somewhat normal day at the zoo. Since the semester is over now, I didn't have much to do besides some feedings now. The weekend brought our holiday event again, "Arctic Lights". The snow and everything happened just fine, just would have been nice to have more people... (Pictures from Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom: Saw fish, walrus, and sea lion)

Week 69: Seriously?

Finals this week. We have every final happening this week since next week is the much anticipated trip to San Diego! Not a lot going on besides lots of people studying and freaking out about it all. There it was though, on Friday, we took our last Gary final ever. Pretty nice. The only written tests we have left to take in the program will be for vet classes next semester.
However, again on Friday, we were all left a little saddened and scratching our heads at the sheer number of losses we've seen as a class. During morning area, Decoy, our wood duck, was found deceased. Cause is yet to be determined, but we are certain he was also quite old. Later that day, one of our blue and gold macaws, Rio, was taken to the vet so they could get a check on how some polyps in her digestive tract were doing, never woke up from the anesthesia. That's two in one day. I wasn't really attached to either of the animals, so it didn't hit me particularly hard, but it's still sad to know that we continue to lose animals at such a rapid rate and we haven't really gained anything to replace them with. Our shrinking collection is really quite sad and we are all holding our breaths that something else doesn't leave us while we're on our field trip. (Pics: a wood duck [not Decoy], Rio, Dolphins from Six Flags: Discovery Kingdom)