29 Days - A hot summer for the animals.

Day 29.
July 11

Today we had a helper! Josh, Angela's boyfriend, got to spend the day working with us and see how his woman spends her days!

We began with Lions, as usual. I actually went to QB to pick up their morning enrichment, and all the Bear breakfasts. Once I met up with everyone at the Lion hut, I had to go into a yard to check the fenceline and pick up poo! The Lions all went out into their yards with no fuss. :)

Then it was the Brown Bears turn to be awakened and let out. We first went into their yards to clean up and throw out their breakfasts.

The hut had to be cleaned next. I helped Matt finish almost all of it before Angela came to pick me up to help her with a Lion 101 encounter. This was actually for another intern and her mom, so it was casual and easy! This intern is for Elephants, so she doesn't know much about the Lions and loved it. They also got a pic with Tau & Sarabi both standing up behind them. After training the young couple, we always walk over to the other pen to see if Keeno will come down and do some training. There have been a few times he didn't feel like it- he was sleeping or too hot or whatever. Well this time he was walking our direction, but then he noticed a horse leg sitting on a rock! That had been set out there for his morning enrichment and he hadn't found it before then! haha! So he took it and laid down to chew on it. Angela realized he wouldn't come down for training, so she just told them a bit more about the Lions and then we started walking away. WELL, Keeno must have wanted to do training after all because he RAN towards the fence and grumbled (Lions can't purr) at Angela to let him have some of the meat! She had him do a few training tricks and he gobbled up the meat chunks heartily. :) He seemed so excited about this. Cutie!

I was sent to QB on my own to make all of the Bear midday snacks. When I finished grabbing those we headed to Black Bears to give theirs to them. I practically handed Ricky his treat since he was sitting next to the fence! I did toss it a bit though so that his claws couldn't get me. :) When we were throwing Chochmo & Takoda's I was sitting next to the fence and Takoda pushed on it and lipped my hair! eek! I scooted away after that, just in case! haha. Then I threw Donna's treats over for her, and we left to give the Brown Bears their midday treats. I got to throw Claire's again. :)

As we drove to go to lunch, we passed by the Black Bear exhibit again and I saw Chochmo & Takoda plopping into their pool which was still refilling from earlier. The hose was tied to the fence so the water sprayed in an arc into the pool. The Bears love it when we do this.

I had a short lunch before I had to go do breaks for both the Lion Tower and Bear Tower. I do love the Towers, but splitting up my lunch break was a bit weird. Oh well- I got about an hour of Tower time. :) The Lions were sleeping and all but one Bear were also sleeping- the other was in the pond chewing on a stick. After the Tower people had gotten their breaks I was able to finish my lunch hour in the office with my book. It was still relaxing after all.

I had to go to QB again to go prepare all of the Bear dinners. Angela & Josh showed up when I'd almost finished and took the Black Bear dinners while I drove to the Brown Bear hut to set up their dinners in their rooms. This is actually an enjoyable task as we try to set up the food in a fun way, such as sometimes putting it in boxes, or hiding it in or under toys, or putting toys on top of it. Once I'd finished with that task I had to go to QB once again to prepare the Lions dinners! This was not hard since the meat hunks were already cut to specifications. I only had to put some nutritional powder on them and meet up with everyone at the Lion hut. Josh helped to load the dinners into their proper chutes at the proper times and Angela quickly and expertly let them all into their own rooms for the night.

Angela & Josh had to leave after that to head to the airport- he was going home. Matt & I were to go with a Cheetah department keeper (Michelle) to put the Brown Bears away, close gates, and help put the Tigers away. I actually drove to close gates while Matt & she put the Brown Bears to bed. Then I met at that hut and Matt & I switched jobs- he closed the rest of the gates and I went to help her with her duties. We had to put Sanurra the Cheetah into her kennel, then load it onto the truck and drive up to the Cheetah area to let her into her pen for the night. Ellie (her Anatolian Shepherd dog-mate) was already in her pen next door, so I went in to give her dinner to her and Michelle fed Sanurra her meat hunk. The last task was to feed the Tigers and put them in their respective rooms. This was done quickly and we were done! yay!

Bye for now...