Swing Life Away

Happy Easter everyone.  I still don't fully understand what Easter is, or what exactly happened and why Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday all exist, but I digress.  To me, the real holiday today is OPENING DAY FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!!  Finally, it's here, and couldn't come at a better time for me.

Anyways, zoo's still going good.  Normal hoofstocky things the last two weeks for the most part.  I did get to do the tortoises all by myself last week, so I felt kind of legit when I was doing that.  I'm sad that it's almost over, but hopefully there will be a way to stay there for the summer at least.  I really do need the zoo in my life right now.  It keeps me going when school and personal stuff gets in the way.

In the kitchen I made tortoise and bird diets and did inventory and helped make a couple popsicles for the Easter festivities at the zoo.

In two Saturdays I'm going to be on a completely new area, so that's something exciting! :)  But that's about it for now.  I still enjoy petting rhinos, and picking up tortoises and watching zebras run around.

If love is a labor I'll slave til the end, I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

If You Could Only See

So, this week was pretty straight forward, so here's a list of things that are different than normal

TUESDAY

Did dry food prep for the next day.  Other than that, just bird and tortoise diets.

SATURDAY


Got all the animals out on time!

Picked up a tortoise to move him to his food.  That was kind of fun.

Went on an extension cord hunt for the zebra heater while Susie went to elephant.  Yeah, I missed out on elephants, but she promised me next time I would go, so there's always that.

If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says, when she says she loves me

Smile Like You Mean It

Crazy week, mostly full of studying, and some more studying, but there was zoo time, so I did have some fun this week

Tuesday was a kitchen day, however, I made bird diets instead of tortoise diets, and we did giraffe feed again, when I saw the baby zebra on exhibit for the first time.  But giraffe feed was different this week because Stacey decided that we should clean up the ledge of the exhibit and fill the hay feeders, so we went to the giraffe barn and she gave me the quick tour (it's really really cool), and then when into the exhibit with the giraffes and filled up the feeders.  I wish they liked being petted, because it would be the greatest thing ever to stand there and pet them, but you can only get a quick little tap on the lower jaw before they pull away.  But that was way cool, and one almost knocked me into the exhibit with his neck.

That was pretty much everything on Tuesday, so exciting.  So today, Susie was late because her dog broke into her kitchen while she was in Flagstaff this week (yes, she went to Flagstaff), and so I was on my own to start getting the food and cart ready, but I didn't know if the rhinos were still getting special meds, so I didn't know how to make their food, so I got stuck early.  But luckily she wasn't too late, and we were still relatively fine timewise.

We went and pulled the male zebra off exhibit since he was on overnight and fed him in the back.  Then she dropped me off to clean up the exhibit while she went to go feed everyone else.  I took a wheelbarrow instead of a bucket, but the wheelbarrow broke, so that was interesting.  I couldn't get it back together for a while, so we didn't really make up much time since I didn't get much done while she was feeding.

After that we cleaned out the rhino exhibit, and then let the rhinos and gazelle out.  I love petting the rhinos every time we do this.  Then we went over to let the zebras and ostriches out, but we didn't know until after we put them out that the ostriches weren't supposed to be out with the baby, so we had to chase the ostriches back into the barn and rearrange everything in back so we could clean their area up a little bit.  And poor Konan was back there by himself in this little area all day.  I feel bad for that guy.  So we cleaned a little bit of ostrich and then went to clean out gazelle and rhino.  When we finished cleaning gazelle Susie let me hand feed one of the corey busters some fish, so that was kind of neat.

Then we put out the tortoises, fed them and took a short break before going to clean out the zebra barns.  In the middle of cleaning the zebra barns, we had a birthday party for Sue the supervisor, so I got to eat cupcakes and hang out with the keepers.  That was fun, they seem really fun and really cool, and most of them are probably in their early to mid 20s, so I feel like I can actually be friends with them, which makes this internship even more fun.

When the party was over we finished off the zebra barns and then it was time to go back to the real world.  The zoo is definitely the best part of my week every week, and I really need to find somewhere to apprentice and then become full time, because getting paid to do this would be a dream come true.

Dreams aren't what they used to be, some things sat by so carelessly

Collide

It's weird how songs on the radio on my way home match up with what happens that day

Today was somewhat different than normal.  Starting out with getting all the feed, but the rhinos needed more than normal because they have more medicine now.  We went and fed them first and then fed ostrich and zebra. After feeding them and watching the foal for a little bit, I went out in the zebra exhibit and started cleaning while Susie went and fed gazelle and corey busters.

After cleaning zebra, I started cleaning rhino while she went and put Konan (the male zebra) and the ostriches out on exhibit.  After we were done cleaning rhino, we put them out with gazelle and the corey busters.  We actually had all the animals out around 9 today, pretty sure that was a first.

Once everyone was out on exhibit, we cleaned up all the barn areas, just like normal, except when we were done cleaning up the rhino back area, we went and got the giant ball that's been being passed around the zoo since today was the rhino's turn.  So we walked through the zoo, fed the giant crane in the rhino yard, and went over to lion to get the ball.  Once we had the ball, I rolled it through the zoo, trying not to run over any little kids with it, which was kind of difficult.  That ball is huge and heavy.

We dropped the ball off by the rhino barn, put food out for the tortoises, and went to clean up the zebra barns.  This took a little longer than normal because of moving around the baby and mom, so we didn't finish before it was time to put the giant ball in the rhino yard.

This was a big snooze.  The rhinos didn't even care, and I got to fill out an entire page of info that said pretty much that.  But I didn't have to spend that time sweeping up zebra poop, so I guess it's ok.  Plus while I was watching the rhino, the polar bear was pacing in his area that's right next to there, so I really watched the polar bear for most of the time.  And I got to hang out with the other keepers for a couple minutes, so that's always fun.  After I finished the evaluation of the ball usage, I went to the rhino barn to help finish up cleaning in there.  This didn't take very long, so I still had some time before the big intern meeting, so I got baby zebra watching duty for about half an hour.  This is just sitting in a chair and staring at the baby zebra to see if he poops, pees, runs or nurses, so luckily it wasn't for too much longer than half an hour even though I love that little guy.

And then came the intern meeting.  It was nice to see Sarah since I hadn't seen her since orientation and she's like the only one I really talk to, so I had a friend again :) The one girl that wasn't at orientation was there, and she looked and sounded like she knew way more about animals than I could even imagine at this point.  We all talked about different ideas, and this is when I realized I got hosed with my placement.  I never really leave the little corner of the zoo I'm in, and I'm really only out on grounds once a week while everyone else is out twice.  So I now like this opportunity, but now I know it could be so much more than what it is.  So that's slightly disappointing.  And I need some help coming up with an idea for hoofstock enrichment, so if you have any ideas shoot them my way....PLEASE!

After our meeting we went to the back area of polar bear, so I got to see one of the polar bears up close and personal, and he did a couple of commands for us, so that was pretty neat.

I somehow find that you and I collide

(S)he will be loved

It's a boy!

Last night, a baby zebra was birthed at the zoo!  So this morning, I was surprised when I wasn't there before Susie, and she left the keeper's quarters just as I got there, and then a minute later she was on the radio screaming there's a baby, there's a baby.  So a few of us went out there, but I didn't get to look then.  I went back and put together the rhino and zebra food dishes while Susie did a bunch of stuff.  When I was done with this we went out there, and she dropped me off in the zebra yard to clean up while she started feeding everyone so we would have more time to move zebras around since there was a baby now.  While I was cleaning the exhibit I caught my first glimpse at the new little boy.  He was soo cute.  When I was done cleaning we let the ostriches out so it would be easier to start moving zebras around and cleaned out their barn so we could move the mother and newborn into that area.

After we did that, we cleaned out the rhino yard really fast and got the rhinos and gazelle out before we started messing with zebras.  Then we cleaned out their back areas and went back to the zebras.  We put the male one out like normal, but kept the older female separate from the mom and baby.  When we got everything sorted out Susie started calling everyone that was off that needed to know there was a baby, and slowly all of them started showing up in the next half hour or so.  We just sort of watched the baby for a little while to make sure he started functioning properly and then we left to go do some tortoise and rhino stuff before more zebra time.

Cleaned out the tortoise areas and put out the new food, and then brought them out of their houses.  While we were up in that area, Susie tried feeding the crane again because he didn't eat very much early in the morning, but he didn't eat much again this time either.  It was kind of fun talking to the zoo visitors and being able to actually answer their questions.  I felt kind of important.

So we went back to the zebra area to start cleaning that out, one little pen at a time.  But right when we started there was a call over the radio saying something about the elephants, and Susie wanted to make sure that they told us when they started what they were going to do.  So we cleaned for about ten minutes and then went out into the zoo and went to the elephant exhibit.  The zoo had just bought a giant ball, and some of the keepers put it in the exhibit this morning, so we all gathered around to see if the elephants would play with it.  The Asian wanted no part of it, but the African played with it for a little bit before going to find food.  It was kind of cool to see them see a new toy for the first time.

When we went back to the zebras to finish cleaning there were a couple other keepers sitting and making observations minute by minute of the baby while I finished cleaning out the different zebra areas.  I got to see the placenta up close and personal, that was really cool but kind of gross at the same time.  That was pretty much it for the day.  Very zebra heavy, but totally worth while.  The baby was having problems nursing and stiff rear legs, so hopefully he's feeling better before I go back Tuesday.

Tap on my window, knock on my door I, want to make you feel beautiful.

I Gotta Feelin

Yep, back to song names as titles for these ;)

Sooooo, Saturdays at the zoo are way cooler than Tuesdays.  Today started off exactly like last week, except way less intimidating.  I kind of had an idea of what I was doing, and I knew where I was going.  Started off with my keeper telling me to find some extra rubber boots that were big enough for me because the entire zoo was a swamp after all the rain that we had this week.  So I found some, luckily, and then we were off to start the day.  She had to go check on the tortoises to make sure they weren't too wet, so I mixed the vitamins and medicine into the rhino and zebra food while she did that, and then we loaded up the cart with all the other food and we were off.

First up is the rhinos.  I took their two food containers in and she brought the grain and pellets.  I fed the male one first since he was already in the barn and Susie started cleaning out his eye while the female came in and then I fed her.  Feeding them this week was way faster than last week, and of course, got some petting in while I could.

The next animals that get food are the ostriches and the zebras.  Ostriches are weird.  They just look and act dumb.  The entire back area was puddles from all the rain, so the animals weren't really moving around too much.  After the ostriches got their food the zebras got theirs, all in their separate areas, and the really old female getting a different diet from the other two.  The pregnant zebra looked fatter this week compared to last week, so that baby is coming and it's coming quick! So excited for when that actually happens.

Next thing on the to do list is to clean out the zebra/ostrich exhibit.  I started this while Susie went and fed the gazelle and carnivore birds (I always forget what they're actually called).  Cleaning exhibits is interesting when there are lakes in the middle of them.  Everything looks so much more disgusting.  Some of the wooden border decorations had fallen off too, so there was a couple gaps in the fence today.  After this we cleaned out the rhino exhibit.  That was even more disgusting.  The only place they poop in the exhibit was covered by water, so all their poop was underwater and we had to kind of muck it out.  But it turned out to be alright cuz we didn't have to get all of it.

This next part was the highlight of the day.  We left the big cart over between the rhinos and zebras, got in a fresh cart and went over to the elephant area! I didn't know I was allowed to even go anywhere near that area, but my keeper and the other one that was on elephants today let me in, so of course I went in.  To get to the place where they clean the elephants' feet, you have to go through the night barn and out to the kind of quarantine area, where they more the elephants into this little barred off cage where the gates are automatic and open and close to move the elephant through and keep them still while the keepers are doing stuff.  Kind of like an airlock I guess.  The two keepers told me exactly where they wanted me to stand as they brought the first of the two out, the Asian elephant.  This one is shorter but thicker than the African elephant, and apparently meaner because they wanted me to stand as still as possible, and my keeper Susie can't touch him because he doesn't like her very much, but she could use this whistle that they use to tell the elephant when it can put its feet back down when they're done cleaning it.  When he was done, they let him out into the exhibit and brought the taller African elephant out.  She's apparently nicer, so they were both doing stuff and then when they started doing her back feet they brought me around and let me touch her feet and scrape off some of the sand.  That was awesome.  I touched an elephant's foot!  And then, if that wasn't enough, they did some kind of tail training and wanted me to be an extra person to touch it for the elephant's training.  So I touched its tail too! Its tail hairs are really hard, kind of like a wire brush thing.  It was incredible to do that though.

When we went back to the main hoofstock area, we took the tortoises their food and then cleaned out the rhino, gazelle and that bird yards.  Then Susie had to go back and do other stuff with the elephants, so I started cleaning the zebra area while she was doing that, and then when she came back she bleached the girl zebra barn (girl zebras poop in their barn but the guy zebra doesn't, guys are obviously cleaner).  When we were done cleaning out the zebra area, she put the females out on exhibit and brought the male back in and that was the end of my day.

So, obviously, the most exciting part was the elephant part.  Hopefully that happens more often than not haha.  I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it and hopefully next week we'll get everything done even faster.

I know that we'll have a ball if we get down go out and just lose it all

My First Day!!

So, this is easily the best thing that I've ever done.  I may have found my true calling in life this morning. :)

When I got there, it was a little strange because I was early and apparently not very many zookeepers get there early on a Saturday.  One of the older ones kind of introduced me to most of them, and then eventually Susie, my Saturday keeper, showed up.  Right away we gathered up all the food as she was explaining to me that they basically feed all the hooved animals a horse's diet.  We then started loading up our cart with all the food that we were going to need for the morning.

We went to the rhinos first.  It was awesome when she started tapping on their fence with a wrench and they came from their house to their different stalls to eat.  As she was treating one of their eyes, she told me to just stand there and pet it while she took care of everything.  Coolest thing ever!  I just stood there petting a rhino for a solid ten minutes, and it wouldn't be the last time!

After that we drove over to the ostriches and zebras and fed them.  The ostriches are kind of crazy, and the zebras are pretty funny.  One of the zebras is pregnant, and she's having the baby in the next month or two, so I'll get to experience that too! After feeding them we went into their exhibit and cleaned it out and fed the different birds that are in there.  When we left there, Susie told me she was going to go get something and sent me back into the exhibit by myself to go retrieve an ostrich egg that they had found.  So that was the first thing I did at the zoo by myself, and apparently it's the weirdest looking ostrich egg that they've ever seen.  So that's kinda fun.  Then we went back to the barn area and let the ostriches and zebras out into their area.

The next thing we did was check the temperature of the tortoises.  They were warm, so we opened up their house to the outside world, and let them cool down for about an hour before putting them out for the public to see.  After that we cleaned out the rhino/gazelle exhibit area and then let them out into their exhibit just as people were starting to show up.  When the rhino was leaving he stuck his head through the fence so I could pet him again. :)

When everything was out in their exhibits and everything was going well, we started cleaning out their night areas, gazelle first, then the rhinos.  When we were just about done cleaning the rhino barn, it was time to give the rhino his daily foot check up.  So I got to watch that happen, and stand there and pet the rhino the whole time so he would stay put and be happy.  That was the last time I'd see Bobo today (he's my new best friend).

The rest of the day was spent sweeping and raking the zebra/ostrich night area.  If you painted a horse with black and white stripes, it would be the same thing as a zebra.  Manure's the same, hay's the same.  Kind of ridiculous.

All in all, today was awesome!  Learned so much about the zoo and the different animals.  I'll probably forget some of it before next Saturday when I'm in hoofstock again, but that's ok.  I can already tell this will be the most incredible thing I've ever done.

Mr Jones and me, tell each other fairy tales