R.I.P. Michael

6.01.09 Michael Bear...... How can we go on without you big guy? We love you and will miss you!

Michael hibernating...

Michael chillin like a villain...
Michael with his ladies...

New chick in town

Our 3 y.o. female white tiger arrived today!

Meet Cloe:

She arrived this morning and is VERY stressed out, poor little! 

Christmas in tiger-land!

We've gotten a lot of new toys for the tigers lately:

Phil made a fire hose ball on a spring (which Saigon snapped...twice... and now hangs on a log over his pond until he finally unravels it)...

We got some new spools which we painted...

I don't know what this toy is called but Saigon obviously likes the taste...

He got a new shiny red ball...

and a weeble that didn't wobble right...

We have since gotten a new weeble and it wobbles perfectly...it's one of his favorite water toys.

And through all the new toys and enrichment this is pretty much always Leah's level of interest:

She's pretty!

Celess' eye view

As promised, some pics of my critters in the cheetah dept:

Saigon

and Scooter

I adore the candid shots I get with my phone...so great lol!

Rooowr baby, rowr!

This is our new lioness, Sarabi. She's a California girl through and through:

She is an approved breeding cat so we are just waiting for our new male to arrive from Virginia and then once they are both "of age" we will be able to breed lions again, yay!

Kitty Updates

Mia just turned one!!! Can you believe it?!! I freaking cannot. She is still my little. Madison just turned 5 too which is even harder to believe. Still a miracle that she is alive and she continues to improve. I didn't know when she would just reach a point where she stopped improving but she keeps getting better. She looks really good. This is from January, I will have to get some more current photos:

This is my Mi-Mi chasing birds on the cat-sitter DVD. She loves it...is entertained for HOURS, kid you not:

She is sooo grow'd up!

Zoo Adventures

Sooo, I have a lot to catch up on.

I've made quite a few trips up to the Oregon Zoo in the last few months. I went up for a lecture on African Lions, a lecture on African Painted dogs, a lecture on Spotted Hyenas, I took my nephews on a tour of the areas I used to work:

Where we were almost attacked by the Babyimus nephewinicus:

then I went back up with a bunch of our vet students from the Caribbean. That was pretty awesome. We got to spend the whole day with Dr. Mitch who is an awesome vet, I think. We spent the whole first half of the day wrestling 12 African Pygmy Goats. We had to do their full physical exams which includes ear exam, eye exam, body size evaluation, teeth/gum exam, hoof trimming, 3 vaccs, and listen to their heart, lungs, and rumination. The goats weren't too thrilled about this so they were struggling and screaming their guts out pretty much the whole time. Unfortunately I did not get any pics of this very entertaining episode. Maybe Andrew did, I'll have to check. Then we moved on to the cat building and then the elephant barn to do an elephant foot x-ray. We got to see Chendra training for the elephant olympics:

Then we spent some time out on the back porch watching little Sam get frisky with the locks on the gates...so freaking A cute!

I want to smooch his little trunk right off!

All in all, it was a really fun day. I miss you Oregon Zoo!

The bears are having a picnic!

Well today was the Teddy Bear Picnic at the Safari. The culmination of our week long celebration of bears called Bear Awareness Week, go figure! It was a GORGEOUS day, at last! It has been so unseasonably wet lately that everything is still lush and super green so The Burg is absolutely gorgeous right now, it reminds me of Boring/Gresham/Sandy. So lush and green, I lurve it! Makes me want to go camping. Anyways, so I had today off but we do face painting at all the children's events to raise money for our AAZK (American Association of Zoo Keepers) chapter. So I spent a couple of hours painting bear faces on the little smunchums. SOO freaking cute.  The littles bring in their teddy bears and get health check-ups and get any repairs made like if their teddy's ear ripped off or something. So potion. There are tons of other activities too like hand painting your hand print on top of Michael's (our big Alaskan Coastal brown bear) paw print. 

He's a big boy! I made one with my hand, hee hee. I love kid activities. It wasn't nearly as busy as last year but we made over $60 face painting.... at $2 a face that's not too shabby. Only bummer was smokey the bear didn't show up....lame! Smokey has been slacking off the last few years. ;-)  They used my art boards that I made for last year:

Aren't they purdy? It makes me want to get back into scrap booking... I know, I'm a dork.

Bears are fun! Peace out.

Curious, Veeeeery Curious!

Where have I been? I'm sure you all have been asking yourself that very question.
Well, no internet access at home has hindered my web surfing just a smidge.
Life has been busy. Since December 1st '08 I have been back in the cheetah dept. and LOVING it! I do soooo miss my bears and lions but my true love ever since I was a didder is the cheetah.
I wrote a letter when I was a nugget to then president, Bush Sr., asking him to make a deal with Africa to save the cheetahs. GR! I was passionate even then. Too bad all I got in response was a photo of Bush looking smug and dapper in a nice sweater and a stamped cookie-cutter letter saying what a good concerned citizen I was. lol! I felt pretty important though.
So, now I look after 20 cheetahs and two mutt tigers. (I'll add photos later as I am at me mum's house right now). I just helped my Uncle create a blog of his own so he could rant and rave online instead of to me. heh heh. He can't wait for his first hate mail, he's like a little kid at Christmas waiting in bed to hear Santa on the rooftop knowing there will be presents in the morning. lol!
I'll try to add blogs as interesting things happen again... which is pretty much a daily basis but it all depends on my time and internet availability..... try to be patient my little baby birds..I'll feed you again soon. ;-)
Well.... off to church. (shh, I don't want to alert the media yet...I may get struck by lightning, we'll see)... It's my Mom's Mother's Day present. The things I do for her, I tell ya ;-) Love You Mamma!