Animal/ Zoo stuff

I really should have blogged more in December, that way I wouldn’t have 200 photos to show in this post. Just kidding, there aren’t quite 200 photos. ha!

So here is our December recap:

We started out by celebrating an early Christmas in Indiana at my sisters with my family:

Then a few days later my parents came to Illinois to spend Christmas with us. We got to do some fun things around Chicago such as spending the day at the Museum of Science & Industry:

We also visited the Volo Auto Museum for the first time, it was actually really cool. They had all kinds of cars/vehicles from the movies and TV so that was fun to see:

We got to have lots of great family time! Some random pics:

Our raccoon came in for a visit one day to meet my parents. 🙂

We played with baby hedgehogs because we could and why not? Aren’t they just the cutest little pincushions you’ve ever seen?

We bought a huge turtle pillow for Ava but the dogs claimed it before we even had a chance to give it to her. It has now been moved to our room and they sleep on it every single night. Except Moose, he sleeps right next to me.

Angus has now claimed the pillow.

This little train “Toot” was the overall hit out of everything (for us adults too!). You should have seen how much fun we all had as we set it up for Ava on Christmas Eve. I just have to add that this was a fabulous $4 thrift store find! Score!

Zoey is patiently waiting for her turn on the turtle.

Steve reading “Twas a Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve

My favorite photos from Christmas Morning:

Family Photos:

And a few more randoms:

Well I think I got pretty close to 200 photos on here anyway! I think I probably took a couple thousand throughout the Holiday…

4 years ago today Steve and I went on our very first official date – to Disneyland 🙂 We were in our first year in the Exotic Animal and Training Management program and at that point the only animals we had been allowed to touch or even talk to were the opossum, rabbit, chinchilla, emu and miniature horse. Oh and we did get to man a couple of the owls as well. Getting to work with the other (many of them larger, more exotic and some more dangerous) animals was still several months in the future and something we longed for. Getting to one day work at a facility with animals was something we thought constantly about, and one day having our very own facility – was a dream that seemed so far off in the distance.

3 years ago today Steve asked me to marry him. We spent the following day back at Disneyland when we got to eat at the exclusive Club 33. It was amazing.

2 years ago we found out I was pregnant with Ava, and we had just started our very own Animal Outreach Company.

and 1 year ago, we have our own little family and our own little zoo.

Today, only 4 years later, I realized how far we have come. Yes we’ve had ups and downs and things have been rough along the way, but I wouldn’t change anything.

Steve and I have a beautiful, amazing and hilarious toddler who brightens our world every single day. We have 75 animals that we adore and a career that we love even though it is a ton of work. And as we were all in the backyard this afternoon enjoying the perfect Fall day, I realized this is what I have been waiting my whole life for. This, right now. I watched Steve across the yard pulling Ava in the wagon, with Angus and Zoey sitting in there with her. Moose was joyfully running beside the wagon yet he didn’t want to get in, and Norman was off in the distance munching on grass while the chickens wandered around him. And even though I was doing the lovely task of picking up pig poop from the grass, it still was, the perfect moment. I am so very thankful for what we have, and I’m proud of us too. 4 years ago we never would have thought we would be as fortunate to be where we are today. We are blessed.

 

…and a cavy in my kitchen and a spider in my purse. Yep all those things in one day, once again – it’s never a dull moment around here.

Norman the pig loves to rummage around in our room, and my purse if he can find it. He knows there is usually some sort of snack in my purse for Ava so I have to keep remembering to leave it somewhere up high when I get home. But he has a fascination with our room. Perhaps he remembers when he was *much* smaller and we let him sleep on our bed at times. Ha!! Not anymore. He would take up most of the bed all by himself. If Norman is wandering around and I suddenly can’t find him, I always check our room first, and he’s usually in there – sometimes just standing around. He’s quite the funny little swine. The other night though I was looking for him and I called for him and Steve hollered from the bedroom “He’s in here – in the closet!”. Funny, Zoey loves to be in our closet too, so much that we moved her bed in there and that’s where she sleeps every night. Oh what would we do without these silly animals of ours?

The cavy in the kitchen: We have a Patagonian Cavy (also called a Patagonian Mara), the 4th largest rodent in the world. “Waldo” is quite the skittish little creature. I say “little” but he’s actually taller than all our dogs. We have been working with him quite a bit though and we managed to get a harness on him (that was quite the ordeal) and then we were able to get a leash on him and take him for daily walks around the backyard. Still very skittish, very. He would not let us pet him or touch him at all without having a huge conniption. There was no treat we could give him for positive reinforcement either, as he won’t take any food from our hands. So we figured that his positive reinforcement was coming out for a walk. He loves to go into the backyard and now comes right up to the door of his enclosure when he sees us, like he is begging to go for a walk. Still though he would not let us touch him. So a couple days ago while I was walking him, I remembered I had some water boiling on the stove. The dogs were running around and playing near us but they surprisingly didn’t bother Waldo at all. I took a chance and walked him to the back door of the house. He was not too willing to go but he did then he wouldn’t go inside the house. So I took a bigger chance and leaned down and picked him up. (if you ever see one of these animals up close – they have crazy long sharp claws and long spindly legs – we’ve gotten quite scratched up before when trying to pick this guy up). Amazingly, he didn’t try to fight me at all and relaxed in my arms for the 20 seconds while I carried him up the stairs and into the kitchen. I put him down and tied his leash to one of the cupboard handles, then gave him some spinach but he wouldn’t touch it. I talked to him as I made dinner, did the dishes and cleaned up, periodically going over to him and petting him on the back, then behind the ears. He didn’t seem to mind at all. Wow! Then Ava woke up from her nap so she joined me in the kitchen and immediately got excited when she saw him – exclaiming “Puppy!”

She rushed to him and he just sat there, so I showed her how to pet him gently and she copied me. Waldo stayed put. Amazing. He ended up hanging out with us for 2 hours. When Steve got home from work, he was shocked when he walked in and saw Ava sitting on the floor next to Waldo patting him. Oh and I also clipped all his nails for the first time ever while he just sat there. It was easier than clipping the dogs nails! Breakthrough with this guy! Hopefully we can start taking him to shows soon.

Spider in my purse. Ugh. This happened while I was driving home. All of a sudden there was this spider (about 1.5 inches in diameter, maybe a bit bigger) on the windshield right in front of my face. “please be on the outside of the car, please be on the outside” I was thinking. But nope, it was on the inside. Of course it was. I grabbed a CD and tried to get it to climb on there and my plan was to flick it out the window. But it jumped on the CD and bolted across it towards my hand so I threw the CD! This spider was Super fast and icky looking too! Then I see it run across the passenger seat and into my purse!!!!! AAAUGGGGG!!!! I am starting to freak out at this point so I actually pulled into a parking lot so I could stop the car. I see the spider run out of my purse and across the seat towards the passenger door, then it disappeared. I looked but I couldn’t find it again. Then I realized how I had been freaking out over this little spider and how I regularly hold a TARANTULA and I felt really really silly. However a few minutes later when I went into the grocery store, I totally just took my wallet out of my purse, checked it all over to make sure the spider wasn’t on it, and left my purse in the car. You know, just in case…..

In other news, my new class Snapshot 30 is about to start so I’m busy getting that ready. I’m also working on several Halloween crafts with tutorials that will be up in the next few days. I seriously need more hours in the day. Basically the only time I get to work on projects is in the evening after Ava goes to bed. I manage to pack a lot into the hours of 7pm – midnight though. If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t responded I apologize! Sometimes emails get lost in my inbox as I generally only respond in the evening, so feel free to email me again and bug me 🙂

I have realized that during the day when I am home with Ava that I really don’t want to miss anything. I don’t want to be one of those people who is glued to their computer screen all day. She is only this young once and the times I am with her is so valuable. I miss her SO much when I am away doing animal shows. So I made the decision that when she is awake and I am home with her, that I am 100% dedicated to her. When she naps I use that time to work on our business: paperwork, phone calls, bookings, etc. Also I need to get laundry done, dishes, cleaning, etc. It’s non stop!

I need to sign off now to work on a couple more projects with the little time I have left before I start to fall asleep. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Ava this week in our backyard. I love this kid so incredibly much!