It's been awhile, I had intended to do short weekly or even daily blogs so that all my devoted readers ;-) wouldn't have to read too much at one time. But you all know how life gets in the way of itself. What with craziness at work and spotty internet at home its been hard. Priorities, you know. So here goes, lots of news my friends:
Madison is doing fantastical. Her recovery has been miraculous, truly... the vets are amazed. She continues to improve on a daily basis too. She can crawl up onto the couch and has found a way to get down with out falling off by hopping over to the armchair which is lower to the ground. She can't jump up onto stuff because her equillibrium is off (permanently I think) so as soon as she releases her front claws to try and jump up she falls straight backwards. She has found a way to pull her self up onto my bed too which I am still trying to catch her in the act of so I can see how exactly she does it. So far I've just awaken to her being next to me on the bed mysteriously. She has woken me up falling off the bed however, I'm actually considering getting her a little "special" kitty helmet...... seriously. My poor crooked kitty ;-)
She plays now which is very good. She get a bit of spunk in her step and flip out with her mouse toy or start hitting a ball around. She chases and wrestles with Mia now too.... SO freaking great to see, you have no idea.
Dana, my favorite spunkified cheetah ranger at the Safari quit and moved back home (traitor!) so I applied for her position. It was a hard decision for me to make because i love my critters (bears and lions) and there are going to be soooo many exciting changes happening in that dept in the near and far future BUT cheetahs are my dream, I've always wanted to work with cheetahs and thats the reason I came to Roseburg, thats where this whole thing started so I had to apply, I just had to. Well, I found out last week that I got the position!!!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! (squeal of excitement) So as of Dec 1st I will be a cheetah keeper!!!!! I think about it and do a happy dance, I'm so excited. I'll be working with my neighbor, Lacey, my current supervisor, Sarah, and our new keeper, Phil, who just spent three years working at CCF (Cheetah Conservation Fund) in Namibia, Africa.
I'll miss you Dana and I heart your guts, but THANK YOU!
My newest nephew, Colten Hunter Zinda, was born on October 25th. Welcome to the world smunchy-face!
Insert dark cloud: the little had to be rushed to the hospital a couple weeks ago and spent three days under observation and being submitted to tests to find out why he had stopped breathing. The doctors couldn't figure it out so they sent him back home. gr. My sister in law had to call 911 the other day and now they have sent the wee lad to a specialist even further south. I wish I could go down there and be with my familia SO bad but I can't afford the unpaid time off or the gas, sigh. My mom was down there for a week and now my uncle is flying down to help out with the older boys. My poor rei-rei (the cuddle monster in the photo above) ADORES his new little brother and is devastated at the thought that Colten might die... that's what he told my mom. SAD! So if any of you out there believe in miracles please pray for one so the bloody specialists can find out what is wrong. All the tests and xrays and probes and tubes have found nothing out of the ordinary so far.
I have a new goal - I want to feel better about myself physically so I have set myself up to get back in shape. Motivation is my biggest problem, it's really easy to get home after work and just crash on the couch so I made a playlist of songs that get me pumped..... most of them ones that I used to run to back in the day so as soon as I hear them it makes me want to work it. So I am gonna start small and try to just either do one tape or take a walk every night after work. I think along with all the exercise I'll be getting in the cheetah dept (most of every day is spent hiking up and down hills) it shouldn't take too long to get back into the groove. I want to look good, dammit! And its not gonna happen by just thinking about it and remembering how good it felt to be a hottie. So wish me luck. Working out used to be a huge part of my life so I know I can do it I just need to make myself get started. The first step is the hardest.
Speaking of first times.... I made my first kill finally. Or I guess I should say my first big kill. I've dispatched plenty of chickens and bunnies in my day but this was my first horse and the first time I've killed anything with a gun (for the faint of heart and gut this may not be pleasant for you but remember the circle of life and that vegetarian or not we are a part of the food chain... it's the reality of life. Some animals can't physiologically choose to eat plants only, they would die). This was huge for me. It's a required, very unpleasant, part of our job at the Safari. Our carnivores have to eat and being a non-profit park we can't afford to buy pre-packaged ground up mystery meat... we use animals donated to us. It's actually a very good recycling system. When the local ranchers and farmers have animals that have gone lame or so old that quality of life has gone down they bring the animals to us (usually horses and cows but sometimes donkeys, goats, etc. we also get roadkill deer and poached/confiscated elk). Its cheaper for the farmers/ranchers since they have to pay hundreds of dollars to have a large animal humanely euthanized by the vet and then buried or cremated whereas with us they donate it for free, we dispatch it, and they get a tax write off. Its better for us too because then our critters get the freshest meat possible and we don't go broke trying to feed them all. We don't accept animals that are perfectly healthy... we hand out numbers for horse-rescue facilities for people who call with "problem" animals so the ones we do use are usually being put out of their misery which makes it a bit easier on our souls. The horse I put down on wednesday was in pretty bad shape, could hardly stand on its own let alone walk around so it was easier than I thought. One shot (I'm a natural I guess) and it was done. I'm glad I finally did it... the build up and anxiety over having to do it for the first time was worse than the act itself. I don't hope to have to do it again any time soon though, I'm just glad the first time is over. Atleast I know I can do it if its required.
My mama took a step towards the technology age.... she created a myspace account! So potion. I helped her.... so freaking adorable. I set all her privacy settings and uploaded a bunch of pictures for her and found a cute layout for her profile. She's so cute. She just wanted to be able to see my cousins pictures and my sister-in-laws... and mine of course. I had to go online and mom-proof my profile ;-) I can just imagine her expression as she peruses through my photos. "Oh dear!" lol! She's not that innocent but she likes to pretend sometimes.
Well, back to real life. I'll try to update my blog more often. Ciao!
