Day 45 - Fun in Bear Tower, and a sad goodbye for Willow

Day 45.

Today was Angela and us interns: Matt, Rayna, and I. We all four went together to the Lion hut and woke up the lions. Natasha gave us a little scare because she's been skipping some meals and acting more lethargic, plus she's 20 and captive lion lifespan is 20-25 years old. (Keeno, who is 18, just had a physical done and he's in perfect health!) They are thinking about putting her under anesthesia to check her health too, but wanted to wait a few more days to see how she eats if we give her the freshest meat we have. She did finish most of her dinner last night, but this morning was just laying there and didn't look up for a minute. Angela got scared for a second until she noticed her breathing! She still didn't get up until we opened the yard for her, but she was okay. (She usually would get up when we came in and rub against the fence near us lovingly.)

One of the chores was cleaning the upper pens (not used much), so I walked around looking for old poo and then cleaned the drain path. While I was in there, Desi the ostrich was following me along the fenceline and a few times he tiptoed towards me and when I looked he dropped down and did his dance! haha! He must like me since I always say hello. Some workers tell him to go away, but he's actually a pretty good ostrich! They say not to encourage his dancing, but I appreciate it and watch when they aren't looking! There's no point in ignoring him, cuz he still follows us around anyway! :)

Next we went to Brown Bears where some guests were doing a "Breakfast with the Bears". Rayna & I picked up the breakfast buckets (which included some tortilla strips!) and met everyone at the exhibit. It was a family with grandparents and parents and 2 little kids. The little girl had a glove on each hand that was too big. :) cute. I got to watch them throw stuff in one of the yards, but then had to go to Lion Tower since someone hadn't shown up! We can't open the lion drive-thru section unless someone is in the tower. I thought I'd be there all morning, but J surprised me and came only 10 minutes into my stay. I did get to watch Tau & Sarabi be cute first though. Sarabi was just walking along the fenceline looking at the few cars that were passing through. Tau was laying on the roof of his shade structure and at one point thought he'd try to get the plastic culvert onto the roof with him! He grabbed the edge of it in his mouth and pulled, then used his paw to stabilize it and it was actually up there for a second, but then it fell off and he grumbled about it. haha! All that hard work and it fell... :) Oh and he also tried to mate with Sarabi while she was nuzzling him, and a couple vans with kids inside were right next to them. haha. I heard the kids exclaiming something.

Oh, and Ron & Kathy are in Bear Tower on Tuesdays, so I saw them and waved so big at them! They seemed pleasantly surprised to see me too, as I don't usually work on Tuesdays.

Rayna came to pick me back up since J was in the Lion Tower. The guests still weren't done placing the breakfast out! We went into the hut to wait and released the bears when everything was ready. Oso was being so lazy, still laying on the floor in the same spot until we opened the door for him. :) He's not a morning bear. Once the bears were out we stayed to clean the hut which went pretty quickly- Rayna is really good. Matt had to go to Cheetah Lodge for a shift.

After we finished cleaning Brown Bear hut, I headed to QB alone to prepare all of the Brown/Black Bear diets and the Lion diets. I also washed some dishes and cut some meat chunks for Lion encounters. Angela was so thankful that I finished that before lunch. :) I like impressing the keepers!

It was lunchtime, so I went to the house to grab a few things I would want when I went in Bear Tower at 1:30 until about 5:30. Flip-flops, computer, phone charger, book, movies. I didn't know what I'd be able to do up here, so I brought a bunch of stuff in case! haha. I actually wrote most of this blog in Bear Tower today! ^_^ When I got here I was replacing the Lawrence's, so we visited for a couple minute before they left. They said they'd loved meeting the family yesterday. Ron thought if we'd owned a pickup truck that we'd have taken his whole rock yard home with us for Alex!

The Bears slept for the first couple hours I was here, but then Russell decided to go for a swim. 15 minute later, Claire decided to join her. They wrestled and looked for goodies in the water and just relaxed there for over an hour! :) What a nice day for a long swim! The boys got up around 4 and started chasing each other and playing a little too. They might have been swimming before that, but I can't see their pond from the tower. :) Near the end of the day the boys got more active and started digging in the dens in the hill, reconstructing the place I guess! One of them was scratching and shaking a tree and trying to grab the high branches. He held on and put one foot up on it like he might climb, but didn't. I looked at them a minute later and he had a branch in his mouth! Not sure how he got that! haha. About an hour before closing the girls got tired of swimming and just sat near me or paced near the gate. It seems like they know that it's ME in the tower- someone who puts them in the hut at night. They must have been hungry and hot. Cuties. They sit with their back feet sticking forward. :)

We have a Lion/Bear Feed with guests- they get to go drop the Lions' meals into their rooms and watch them come into their hut, then they drive to the Brown Bears and watch them come into their hut and eat the dinners we already set up earlier in the day. When they arrived at the hut I met up with Angela to let the girls get through the tunnel and into their rooms. Then we went into the hut with the guests and watched the Bears eat. That was the end of our day- a nice ending seeing people get amazed at how big the Bears are. :)

Sad Note: We lost Willow the Cheetah today. She was only about 5 years old, already on meds for renal failure (common in Cheetahs), and she wasn't eating much the past few days. When my fam fed the Cheetahs yesterday we skipped her & her sister cuz she wasn't getting up or interested. The keepers couldn't get her to take her medicine chunk of meat either. Today she didn't eat again and the vet came to test her kidneys and said it was the end for her.. so they euthanized her this morning... ~_~ I hope Kira, her sister, will be okay and not too sad...

Bye for now...