Day 42.
We started at Lions as usual, waking them up, checking fencelines, moving toys around. I actually put a barrel in a tree and supported it with a stick. heh heh. When Tau got out there he immediately went to my setup and batted at the stick to release the barrel! ha! Then he climbed the tree a little too! Lions usually don't climb trees, but it is a pasttime for Sarabi and I guess it rubbed off a little on Tau too. :) On her way outside, Sarabi stopped to pace in front of Natasha- both of them staring at each other menacingly. We finally had to get the hose and spray her feet to get her to go into the yard! Lions don't like getting wet. Then Matt & I stayed to clean out their hut.
From there we were to go and clean the Brown Bear hut. We usually drive the only automatic car, but today Sarah told me I should practice driving the bronco (one of the hardest!) and "become one with the bronco". I actually did a very good job! I only stalled out once while waiting on an incline for cars to go by. We cleaned the hut, then it was lunchtime! I had to make sure to end my lunch on the dot so I could go give Bear Tower a lunch break! While I was in there the Grizzly boys (Victor, Mak, Oso) were digging a den- veerrry fun! At 1:30 the Bear Tower volunteer came back and all of the Carnivores of the day (Sarah, Valerie, Matt, Rayna, & I) met in the Brown Bear exhibit with TWO truck-loads of people for a Big Bear Encounter! They had already set up for me to do the training while Sarah & Valerie each took a truck and spoke to those groups about the bears. Rayna & Matt were supposed to have done the speaking, but it didn't work out that way so they just watched. Rayna is still learning about the Bears anyway. :) I did a good job training though! And it was a very fun, large group with lots of little kids. :) It's so cute when they throw the apples to the Bears. A lot of apples were thrown over to Russel & Claire too, in their pond, and they swam around and ate them leisurely. They are having a lot of fun being in that middle yard! ^_^
Next was a string of chores that we always do: prepare Brown/Black Bear diets, wash dishes, set up Brown Bear dinners in their hut, throw Black Bear dinners over the fences to them. We also cut up a ton of meat chunks for a special event that was to happen in the Lion exhibit! A special fancy dinner put on by some large contributor to the park I think. There was a bit white tent set up in front of the Lion pens for the past week. Only the keepers attended, so we didn't get to see what it was like. Oh well. But we did see van-fulls and truck-fulls of the guests, all dressed up, being driven around the park after hours. We were told to put the Brown Bears in their hut, and afterwards the people drove over to try and see them! Nobody told the keepers to keep them out though! Oh well again! Sarah & Valerie put on official button-down shirts for the event and sprayed some perfume on to cover the sweaty smell. haha.
The last thing us interns did was wash off a truck with a hose, then we got to go home a little early, which was good for me since the fam was coming!!! ^_^
I went to the house to shower and change, then drove to Roseburg to pick up the produce for the Bears and also some groceries for the visit! When I was pushing the cart-load of produce out, a manager (I think) saw me and asked if the produce in boxes was better. I've never had the produce NOT in boxes, so I just said yes, and thanked him for contributing to the animals. :) Then I went grocery shopping and called Mumu to see where they were. They were only 15 minutes away from the hotel!!!!!!!! I thought it'd be a few hours more- and I was still 40 minutes from arriving at the hotel! My plans to spread blue balloons everywhere was nixed, but I rushed over to see everyone. When I got there, Ian & Jacob were downstairs and led me to the room. I opened the door and Daddy was talking, then noticed me and said "oh!". I peeked around the corner to see Alex on the bed and when he noticed me he looked surprised, then smiled really huge, then hid his face. :) We visited for a little while, then I went to bed snuggled with Alex. Mu came in the bed later and we had a sandwich with Alex as the meat. :) How nice to have wiggly little Alex sleeping next to me. ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ And at one point in the night he rolled over onto Mu and flung his leg over her- haha! Two days with my family- yaaaaaay!!!
Bye for now...
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