Day 12.

This morning we started by waking up the lions. Keeno was already up and anxious to go out, but the other three were still lying down and I got pictures of them yawning. Keeno thought we were moving too slowly, so he started the others on caroling (roaring back and forth). It was pretty cool- always awesome to be in the middle of it! You can feel the vibrations! Before we let them out we had to check the yards' fence lines and put out enrichment. Today's lion enrichment- perfume! I sprayed in Tau & Sarabi's pen.

After lions were put out, we headed to Brown Bears. On our way through "Africa," Desi the Ostrich chased our vehicle! haha! He always gives up at a certain point in the road though. We threw the Brown Bears' breakfasts into their appropriate yards, then Erin (intern) & I went into the hut to let them all out. Russel was so excited to get out that she went through backwards as we were still raising the guillotine door! I guess her shoulders were too big, so she thought she'd squeeze through butt first. :)

Erin & I cleaned the bear huts thoroughly, and met up with the zebra bus full of kids to do a Grizzly encounter. The kids had made honey & nut pine cones for the bears. They threw these one at a time to the boys and to the girls. The bears loved them! When the kids left, Erin & I had to rinse the hut before heading to another encounter- Lion 101! I got to distract a lion while Angela trained the other. :) I love doing this because when we feed the meat chunks to them, our hands are only about 3 inches from them! amazing!

It was time for the Brown Bears to get their midday snack, so we picked up some rhea eggs from the fridge, and fruit-sicles from QB. We gave the boys (Mak, Victor, Oso) each a fruit-sicle, and then we threw a rhea egg to both girls (Russel, Claire). Since they had been arguing every now and then for the past week, we made sure to throw their eggs at a distance from each other. I threw Claire's to her- I got so close I almost hit her! eek! She scrambled over to it so fast- she was so excited! It was the cutest! I love her! ^_^

Lunchtime!

After lunch we did another Lion 101 encounter. I again got to distract a lion while Angela trained the other. To help conserve meat chunks I jogged back and forth along the fence line a little and Tau jogged with me! It was so cool- running alongside a lion about 2 feet apart with just a fence between us. :)

We had to make meals after that, so we dropped Erin off at QB to do that while we went to the Black Bear exhibit to fix up some spools for them. We met back up with Erin after to finish the meal preparations, but she had almost finished! I DID have to cut some meat though, so that we gave everyone the proper proportions. ew!

Angela & I dropped Erin off again, this time to do a Big Bear encounter where she says "Big Bear!" to the boys, and they stand up for their treats. While she did this, Angela & I went to Black Bears again to put their spools in their yards and feed them. We first stopped at the fence line on the hill and threw over Little Boy's & Ricky's meals. Then we drove into the exhibit to throw Little Girl's, Donna's, Chochmo's, & Takoda's dinners all over their own fences.

Next it was my turn to be dropped off alone! I went into the Brown Bear hut to put their dinners into their rooms, then waited while Angela & Erin did another Lion encounter. (I watched one of "Disney's Brother Bear" music videos, "I'm on My Way" while I waited!)

When they picked me back up, we headed to QB to do "dishes" and prepare the lions' dinners. Then we drove to the lion hut to feed them and put them to bed. :)

We headed back up to Brown Bears after that, and put the girls to bed. Before we put the boys in, we had to go help someone from the cheetah department put up one of their cheetahs. She is in "The Village" walk through area during the day, and goes back into the cheetah yard area at night, by crate. When she was all set and fed her dinner, we went back to the Brown Bears where Angela & Erin put them in, while I got to drive the main road to check for guests and to lock gates.

Once that was done I met up with the cheetah department guy again and we put the tigers to bed with their dinners! The second time I got to help do tigers!

That was it!

bye for now..