I work at a Zoo now.
It's amazing.
I get tossed around with different keepers from 10 to five.
The first (two days go) day I worked with Allison, and picked with Davey the donkey's poo, and the llamas, and Pig (that's his name). And then we went and scrubbed the houses for when the animals are brought inside. I scrubbed the floors of Primate houses, and a white tiger house and a puma house... it was awesome! Then I played with two month old African Serval kits... Chip and Polka Dot... a small child named them. They're adorable! I love them.
The next day, which was yesterday, I worked with Diana in the Education building, where I pretty much stood still while she spoke to two classes for an hour about (in order of appearance) a bearded dragon (named Rock), a Blue tongued Skink (my favorite type of Skink EVER, and then a Leopard Tortoise (named Tetris, 'cause of his tetris grooved lookin' shell), a soft shelled turtle, then we switch and go to a Screech Owl (named Dexter... he got hit with a car, or flew into a window or something, so now the zoo takes care of him... he's awesome), and then we close with two baby wallabies (Matilda and Heath).
Heath is the younger half brother of Matilda. They're adorable. I play with them. I get to play with them and the baby Servals. That's my job.
No, but really... The other day, I stood in the education room and learned all the information about how the animals are all totally awesome (don't worry, I'll do something special for all of them.. I'll get their pictures, and make up my own education thing just for right here...on my day off, though.) and then I just held Matilda in her 'pouch' because she got upset that Diana took Heath away from her for the presentation... So, I held Matilda, and brought her around for pictures and stuff... It's a good time...
Today, all the aforementioned animals, sans Screech Owl and Soft-shelled turtle were handled by myself. The owl has issues, so he and Diana are working with the avian thing together, and the turtle, well. okay, I'm going to teach you something right now.
This turtle, pictured below is the soft-shelled turtle. It has that snorkle nose so it can breathe when it burrows under the sand for protection from the predators... And Jereality is a predator to it.. luckily, it has great defense... A super long neck it can extend that I was too lazy to grab a picture of that you can google... Their neck, no lie, the one at the zoo, stretches like, five, six inches from the shell. If your finger goes near it, he will snap at it. And it's not 'aw, cute, the turtle is gumming my finger'. It's 'OH MY GOD!' Because turtles and tortoises are closely related to birds anatomically in the sense that they both have beaks.
The turtl's beak below, it's like a pair of scissors. Why would I stick my hand in sand with a pair of angry scissors?
This tortoise on the other hand cannot stretch his neck several inches, and the one we have is about 10-15 pounds, rather than the one that's about the size of a large tea saucer and can brutally scissor-blade attack your fingers, Tetris's beak is like a steak knife. However, he is easier to grab, so I held him... and all was well... I still have all my fingers.
Apparently there is a birthday party tomorrow, I get to hold animals again. I'm so excited. I've heard no one likes the education room because of the reptiles... Pssh, I love reptiles... So, I love the education room... It's totally awesome... But I still want to be around the other animals, too, so I need to make sure I don't concentrate my time with the reptiles and the birds... so I miss out on the rest of the zoo... 'cause I love big cats and the primates are hysterical... and Holly, the bear, so cool. So, we'll see what happens with all that...
I still need to get my papers signed...
-sigh-
Once again...
But still, I got a sort of job! WOO!
^_6;; Jereality
I LOVE ANIMALS!!
