Monday, July 14, 2008


Today was pretty awesome. I didn’t have to clean the mammals or the bird cages in the morning since we had a lot of people helping and it made things run very smoothly. So, while they were cleaning pens, I was dong the dishes and was able to get the water all ready to go back to the animals. But before we give them back their water we have to spray down the floors and squeegee all the water into the drains put at strategic locations around the building. Again, this job was completed with ease and didn’t take long at all.
Then Victoria and I worked on diets and were given the job of putting a mixture of mulch, sand, and dirt into a new tub for the Gopher Tortoise. Apparently, the old tub had a huge rust hole on the bottom… I’m not really sure how the dirt stayed in it. It was pretty fun and we actually got into the tub and mixed everything together with our feet… like grapes and wine in a tiny village in Rome.
Lunch was good… I got an ‘Icee’… we do not have such entities in Maine… It was almost as if it were flavored ice like a Slush Puppy, but then it was almost carbonated feeling. Strange… good.
My favorite part of the job is training and handling the animals. I really like that they are trusting me to be able to handle some of the animals without supervision. There is always someone around if I need help, but they aren’t overseeing it like they were in the beginning, which makes me feel like they trust me which is important for a work environment. It makes me feel like I’ve earned a place there… and I believe I have. I like being able to see the different ways to train the animals and I’ve gotten to the point where I can answer questions about the animals to people walking by.
The afternoon went well, we did our shows, got all our training exercises in, did some monthly cursory exams, our end of the day stuff, and we were able to get out of there by a little after 5. So, I’d say it was a really good day and we had a lot of fun.

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