Archives for 2009

Guess what I got today?

A little baby rat!! (and yes they did put her inside a paper bag for me to take her home in! isn’t that terrible?)

I had to stop off at the pet store on the way home from school today to get more bedding for Fro’s cage, and there were all these adorable little rats in aquariums – feeders. Meaning of course they are bred to be food for other animals, as I am so used to seeing now… However, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for all these little cuties and before I knew it, I was asking one of the ladies who worked there if I could just hold the little cream colored one – just for a second. That’s all it took – I held her and I said “I’ll take her” and that was that.

Her name is Bella and she is absolutely adorable! She is as small as a mouse right now so she must be very young, and she is very tame. She had ridden on my shoulder all around the house already. I have to train a rat for a class I’m taking in January so I knew I would have to get a rat eventually.

At school today I got to hold some interesting critters….such as a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (and it was really big too!), a Tarantula, a California King Snake, a water dragon, and some lizards. Pretty cool!! I was not so thrilled about the cockroach though, as you can see by my face in the photo.

Today is a special day as it would have been my Grandma’s 87th birthday. She loved animals her entire life, and I know she would have been thrilled if she knew where I was right now. I didn’t even find out about the EATM program until about 6 weeks after she died last year.

Happy birthday Grandma, we all miss you and love you very much.

Angus adored Grandma, and the feeling was mutual   : )

What a scary thing this is – all these crazy wild fires burning here in Southern California. They aren’t in the area I’m in but they are getting closer. Our usual blue sky was all hazy and overcast looking, but it was all smoke. We can smell it in the mornings at the zoo. I’ve never been in this kind of situation before and there is a possibility if the fires get too close, that we’ll have to evacuate the zoo.

I took this picture at the college today – it was much more dramatic in real life, but you can really see all the smoke in the sky.

This one was taken yesterday on the 118 – lots of smoke in the distance. We actually could see the fires burning off in the hills at one point from the freeway.

It’s still so incredibly hot here. Yesterday I only had classes in the morning and had the entire afternoon off so I got to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain! I was so excited!!! It was even hotter there though and I think between the heat and riding the crazy rollercoasters, it just did me in.  I was pretty sick! I was still a little dizzy and nauseous today!

I do have to say that the ride Tatsu is definitely the scariest ride I’ve ever been on.  It is the largest, tallest and fastest flying coaster in the world. A flying coaster is where you are facing downwards, as if you are flying.

it starts out like this, you sit in the seats and get harnessed in

then it rotates 90 degrees so you’re facing downwards! I totally felt like I was going to fall right out! yikes!!

So believe it or not, I do not like heights, at all. So the scariest part for me was when we started up the first huge climb as we were moving slower, but facing downwards watching the park below us getting smaller and smaller. Then everything else happened so fast, we were whizzing through loops and steep hills and wow, crazy!!! It was seriously the longest 90 seconds of my life.

So school stuff is going well, days are blending together for me its so busy. I just added a couple more classes too so I’m up to 24 units this semester! The thing is – my friends are all taking the same courses. (how very highschoolish of me to say that!!). But honestly, it will be so much easier to study as a group, and the extra classes are fairly easy. Better to get them done now.

I am really learning to value time off, even when it’s only a couple hours. I really love Mondays now too cause I only have classes in the morning then I have the entire rest of the day off and no zoo duties. I consider it a day off, lol

Here is a picture of Hudson, the beaver. He’s so stinkin cute, I just love him!!! He was out with his trainer on the lawn in front of one of our classrooms the other day, so I snapped a quick photo of him with my phone.

Getting up at 4:45 AM 3 days a week is tough, but it was definitely worth it today! As I hurried to get my usual early morning activities done such as getting ready to school, taking the dogs out then feeding them and then letting them go back to bed (haha), I  couldn’t wait to leave for school. I rushed out of the house just before 6 am with my shoelaces still untied and a protein shake in my hand. Today we actually get to touch an animal at the zoo!!! In fact we get to hold Owls on our arms!!

Every other early morning at the zoo, our group of 25 students pile into the classroom for role call, usually tired and trying to hide in our hoodies. Today there was excitement in the room! We all got to go down to the Mews where the Birds of Prey reside, and 2 of them were taken out for us. We have recently learned how to tie a Falconry Knot and we had to demonstrate this first, then we got to go line up to take turns holding each of the owls on one arm, then tynig the knot with the other hand. Nova was the Great Horned Owl and Sweet Pea was the Barn Owl. This experience was awesome and really reminds me of why I am here and what is yet to come : )

The hardest part of this week has been the weather – its been SO incredibly hot here. It was over 90 degrees in the shade yesterday at the zoo.

We have just learned about Animal Attacks and what to do if we get attacked by various animals. Nothing has happened yet but it can happen and probably WILL happen. When we’re working with dangerous animals, anything can happen. Even a seemingly nice and calm animal can suddenly change.

The only thing so far that’s happened to me since I got here is I was bitten by a rat. It bled, it hurt for several days but in the grand scheme of things it’s incredibly minor as I’m sure much worse will happen….