30 is flirty!

Well, it has been quite some time since i've had the inclination to blog...... ALOT has happened.I am back in Portland as of October '09 and am working at the Oregon Zoo!!!!!! eeeeeeeeeee! (squeal of happiness) One step closer to my life's goal. I am not a full time permanent keeper however. I am a temp keeper which means that i only get a certain number of hours per year and no benefits buuuuuut it's well over double what i was making down south and i tell them my availability. What that means is on a week by week basis i tell them what days i'm available to work... doesn't mean i'll get scheduled but it gives me flexibility to have a part time job on the side until a permanent position becomes available. So i have to be available atleast three days a week for the zoo and one of those has to be a sat or a sun. I also get trained in atleast three areas at the zoo so i can essentially be "on call".

First I worked marine life again, which felt like being home since that is where i started there what.... over 5 years ago? wow! As a temp i do what regular keepers do on a daily basis except for training behaviors (depends on the dept and how established the behavior is) so in Marine life i work the cat/fish routine (tigers, leopards, fish, and invertebrates) or the bear routine (polar bears/sun bears). I love it... all the keepers have such great attitudes and make it so fun to work with them. We just mesh well.... you don't know how important that is.. Well maybe you do. It makes work SOOOO much nicer when you all get along and have fun together!

I heart those guys!

I also got trained in the Africa Predators of the Serengeti dept. Which is the newest exhibit at the zoo... it has lions, cheetah (two of my boys from the Safari...well, only one now but that's another story), wild dogs, caracal, as well as various other "lesser" predators like reptiles and ugh...spiders (shudder). I had hoped desperately to get to work in the Africa section but had NO idea i'd get trained in the Predator area only because they had seemed like it was kind of off limits... not even all of the Africa keepers had been trained to do it yet. But i got lucky..... three of the four keepers trained to do the predator routine were going to be off for a couple weeks and since i had predator experience i got trained in two days and then took over the whole area for like two and a half weeks!!!! It was SO awesome! ! Seriously... I would so loooove to have that area as my own, I would have os much fun with those animals. Predators are my thing, what can I say?

I've always loved lions ever since i read the Narnia books as a little and wanted to meet Aslan. ;-) They have three at the zoo, a male and two females. Zawadi, the male, is my special. He is sooo sensitive and really does not seem to like men. Someone said they thought his previous keepers were all female so it may take him some time. He seemed to get used to me pretty quickly, I'm used to special males... between Ariyeh, Keeno, and Oso at Safari I've had lots of practice soothing sensitive male egos ;-) The girls Neka and Kya are rambunctious saucy little wenches who would be SO great to work with and get them calmed down... oh man I would love the opportunity to build relationships with those cats.... I fell in love with them so fast and so hard. (I miss them SO much!)

Cheetahs...well, I've had a thing for cheetahs forever... I wish i had made a copy of the letter i wrote to Bush Sr. when he was the Pres asking him to help Africa save the cheetahs...I would so love to read what I wrote in it, how freaking cute would that be?! And now I've grown up and worked with one of the top 5 cheetah breeding programs in the US.... how great is that?! The cheetahs at the zoo came from the Safari... Scooter and Suseli (brothers from the May '07 litter) were shipped up to Portland when I was still working with them at the Safari. We have since lost Scooter to what appears to be a very aggressive pancreatic cancer but we are still waiting for the pathology reports to come back (can take atleast a month). It was VERY sad and it happened after I was done working that area (i had been done in that dept for about a week/week and a half). So sudden and so tragic since they were only two years old. And now my other sensitive, delicate boy Susel is all alone. I did go check up on Sus last week and he seems pretty chill but his keepers are keeping a close eye on him.

The Wild Dogs are such amazing animals..... I learn more cool things about them everyday..the fact that wild dogs are one of the top predators alongside lions and yet are complete opposites of them and their social structure in so many ways. I love the animal kingdom in all its horrific glory. It seems so random at times but everything fits together perfectly and one without the other and it all starts to unravel, everyone and everything has it's place in the web and it all works (without human interference anyways).

The caracal (Peggy) is out of control... I fell in love with her in an instant. I call her Pegsy or Peggy-Sue or The Pegster and she grumbles ALL the time, she makes little snarfy noises while she pees and she snorts when she eats... oh man, her superbness is more than I can handle. I miss her little guts! She was a sensitive thing too. All these animals were new to their exhibits and still adjusting to new people which can be hard. Animals are very sensitive to changes in their environment and a move is a pretty drastic change. The little Pegster adjusted to me pretty quickly though and it was really great to see her enjoying her new home. After my stint in the Predator section they started training me to do the hippo/rhino routine which was very cool (Pete the rhino is soooo freaking sweet, we clicked right away, he loves back rubs and butt massages but then who doesn't). However... I would gladly take a simple carnivore poo to the walls/floors/every conceivable surface covered in hippo splatter. They eat ALOT and poo ALOT and it all smells very different. I am still very allergic to hay dust as well, lol. It was a great learning experience though and i'd work it any day they scheduled me there no problemo but i def missed my carnivores. ;-)

I have since begun training up at the hospital since they have a full time keeper that works up there to take care of any animals that have to stay at the hospital for an extended amount of time like an injury that needs to be monitored or quarantine of new arrivals. It is constantly changing and I have learned a lot of new things.

Basically I love LOVE my job and wish I could be there full time... someday... les sigh!

Let's see..... what else.... I am living with my brother and his family (wife and three boys ages 1, 9, and 12) until i can afford a place of my own. I entered the new year as a fabulous 30 year old woman but won't feel like it until i get out on my own again. I need my own space VERY much. Haven't been able to really start looking for an apt or a part time job to supplement my income because of a big vacation i have coming up next week. I am going to FIJI!!!! For two weeks!!! I am so excited i could tinkle!! It has been planned for some time and everything is paid for and i wouldn't miss this opportunity for the world. I never thought I'd get to go on a trip like this, are you kidding me?! I still can't believe it's actually happening..... it feels very unreal. I cannot wait! i leave the 23rd of Jan and spend the first week on the coral coast of Viti Levu at a fab resort where we will be exploring caves, taking a zipline tour of the rainforest, checking out some local archeological sites, and just chilling on the beach then we go north to catch a 70 person yacht to island hop the Yasawas (where they filmed the movies Blue Lagoon and Castaway) for a week. Man, I am not gonna want to come home. But they have no land mammals so will def be coming home ;-)

So when I return the job hunt begins and once i have enough saved for a deposit I will be out on my own again.... i cannot wait to have a permanent residence to call HOME! I won't be moving again unless it floods/falls into the earth/asteroid lands on it/ or i get married.... nothing less drastic will be cause for me to move again for a VERY long time.