My Stuff

QotD: Rinse... and Repeat?

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:10:34 -0700

How long do you take in the shower?
Submitted by Strive2Be.

I take about 20 minutes because that's how long my hot water lasts at home...if I want a longer shower I'd better like it cool.

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QotD: Smiley Face

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:00:20 -0700

What's making you smile today?

The care package I got from Mike yesterday. He sent a picture he drew, a stuffed animal, a book I've really been looking forward to, and orange Milano cookies. It's a box full of happiness. :D (Happiness plus vitamins and my new insurance card)

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Vox Hunt: I'd Rather Be...

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:55:09 -0700

Show us what you wish you were doing right now.

Vday2005

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Zoo happenings

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:58:30 -0700

Ooh, so today/last night Sherlock (the fox) caught a chipmunk...he was playing with it when we went in to feed him this morning. I didn't think he had it in him, having been raised by hand. Go Sherlock!

I also tackled a Jacob's Sheep ram, Sebastian. He's really strong and shoved me into the fence. It took four of us to hold him just to get the halter on him and three people to move him to his new enclosure. He's now up in the goat bachelor pad with Bubba, Frodo, and Gimli.

wrangling Sebastian up to the bachelor pad

butts

Sebastian the Jacob's Sheep

Here's some photos of the boys up in the bachelor pad.

Bubba the Fainting Goat

Frodo the Pygmy Goat

Gimli the Pygmy Goat

The boys

Also here's a shot of the Reindeer ladies and their buddy Bruce the Barbados Sheep.

The girls and Bruce

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A few videos from the zoo

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:36:04 -0700

Nigel the camel and his awesome lips

Eeyore the donkey braying

Sherlock the fox

Sherlock and a mouse

Arctic

I love that my camera can take video! :D

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Meet the animals!

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:24:29 -0700

Here's the animals I'm helping take care of as a North Trek Intern at the Utica Zoo:

Mexican wolves

Penny the Siberian Lynx

Floyd the Siberian Lynx

Nigel the Bactrian Camel

Wingra the Siberian/Amur Tiger

Minona the Siberian/Amur Tiger

Nobbers and Ringo the Rocky Mountain Goats

Wicket the North American Porcupine

Sherlock the Red Fox

Bambi the White-tailed Deer

Red and Nadia the Eurasian Wild Boars

Red and Nadia's babies

Me and a boar baby

Ricky and Lucy the Snowy Owls

Arctic the wolf hybrid

Arctic the wolf hybrid and Tundra the husky

I don't have any pictures yet of Fred and Ginger the Bald Eagles, Prancer and Amber the Reindeer, Bruce the Barbados ram, Bubba the Fainting Goat, and Frodo and Gimli the African Pygmy Goats.

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How this whole intern thing works:

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:29:12 -0700

The internship runs 10 weeks, 40 hours a week. There are four sections: North Trek, Tropical Core, Children's Zoo, and Diets/vet tech/infirmary/quarantine. We start in one area (two people per area except for Tom in vet tech because he's in a special program) and stay there for several weeks then one of us in each area rotates to a new area for a week. Then we switch, the one who had been elsewhere comes back to their section and the one who had stayed goes out to a new section. This allows us to focus on an area but also to gain experience in all the different areas of the zoo.

I'm in North Trek which I've heard is one of the most labor intensive areas. My morning starts at 8am where I meet Tim, the North Trek lead keeper in the kitchen. We gather up the morning diets, two water jugs, and a lined poop bucket and head out to the Boar Barn. While the boars are still locked in their barn we go out on exhibit to spread around their fresh produce, refill the water dish, test the electric fence, and scoop poop. Then we let out the boars and head over to the Camel Barn. We usually say "Hi" to Nigel and lock him in his barn so we can go out to fill his food dish and water bucket and test the fence. The he gets let out on exhibit and we load all the rest of the food and stuff into the keeper cart. We then head up to the Tigers where we check in on them, check the fence, scoop poop, refill water, and then let them out on exhibit. We also check in on the red fox, who is a room in the tiger complex for now while he's waiting on an enclosure up on the Nature Trail, scoop poop, feed, and water. Sometimes Tim works on training him in the mornings. He does tricks for Craisens. Next we head up to the Reindeer Barn to give the Reindeer girls and the Barbados ram their grain and new water, plus there is a goat bachelor pad up there that need new water. Then it's up to the Wolf Hybrid exhibit to give the wolf and his husky companion their breakfast, new water, and scoop poop. Then we head out on the Nature Trail to clean the Lynx exhibit and give them new water; feed, water, and clean the Porcupine; clean up and feed the Snowy Owls; clean the Mexican Wolves' den, and feed and water them. We also check all the animals to see that they look alright and aren't in any distress. Then we head back to the kitchen to do the dishes.

Next we start cleaning. We completely strip the Camel, Boar, and Reindeer barns and lay down new straw for bedding and fill the hay racks with new hay. We also rake the Camel, Reindeer, and Mountain Goat yards. We also spray down the Tiger dens everyday because they pee all over the place and it stinks. Each day there is another thing to disinfect. Each week we disinfect all the barns, the tiger dens, the fox's den, all the water and food dishes, the Tiger pool out in their exhibit and the bald eagle pool. Disinfecting involves spraying down the barn/den then scrubbing the floors and walls with disinfectant and then rinsing it all off. We then "haul out" all the dirty hay and poop to the giant compost pile.

At the end of the day we go around to feed and water everybody and let them all into their barns/dens. We feed the boars, mountain goats, camel, bald eagles, white-tailed deer, tigers, fox, reindeer, dogs, and lynx. Then it's time for more dishes. We usually have time for some other project during the day, like working on enrichment (toys/mental stimulation), altering/fixing exhibits, working with socialized animals, training animals, getting ahead on disinfecting or catching up on missed ones, helping with medical procedures, grooming, and helping other keepers with projects in their areas. There's also an hour lunch in there. It's a long, exhausting day but it's pretty awesome at the same time! I usually come home sweaty, dirty with god-knows-what all over me (dirt, poo, urine), and stinky. Shower's first thing!

Next: Meet the animals!

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Greetings from Utica, NY

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:05:43 -0700

The trip here was fun and very long. Mom and I drove all the way across the US (California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York). The center of the US is very very flat. I can't imagine living anywhere that flat... I've always had hills. Flat horizons are oceans for me, not plains...it's weird. For the most part we hit good weather although there were a few really windy areas and a bit of rain and snow. We barely missed a nasty storm and tornado in Iowa though...it touched down just a few hours after we came through. We spent Memorial Day at my brother's and had a yummy BBQ over at his friend John's house.

When we arrived in Utica we went straight to the zoo where I met up with the animal curator and zoo director. They took us down to my temporary dorm and set me up. Since I came a few days earlier than the other interns I was put up at the Mohawk Valley Community College. Scary looking dorms...it looked like an insane asylum or something inside...very cold and sterile. The ones here at Utica College look much nicer and more homey.

My fellow interns are pretty awesome too. We've been getting along great although I do foresee a blowup between a few of them at some point. I worked three days before they got here. There are nine of us including me: Claire, Stephanie, Erica, Alejandra, Melissa, Matt, Travis, and Tom (who lives nearby so he's not in the dorms). We're from all over: California, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina, New Jersey, and a few from New York. Most of them are graduates too and also on their first internship, which is nice since I don't feel like such a loser for waiting until after I graduated to intern somewhere.

I'm gonna do a couple of posts rather than write one huge one so I'll stop here. :D

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Custom pony attempt #1 plus pretty Humboldt Pictures

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:40:26 -0700

I've managed to find a few G3 MLPs at local thrift stores (plus a few at another second hand shop that sells them for just below retail which just seems stupid to me...if I want to pay $4.50 for a pony I'll fork out the extra buck and get a brand new one. It's much easier to get them for 20-50cents) including one of those McD's Ponyville ponies. I decided to try out my first custom attempt on the little Ponyville one because there's no beheading and rehairing, it's just figuring out a design and painting her. It was fun. :D Of course, my mom and hubby think I'm nuts, but I think she's cute.

You can't really see it, but she has a dark stripe in her hair too, it's just on the other side of her head. I have no idea which pony she was...she had a blue body and pink hair and let me tell you, it was a bitch to get all the blue covered with the white paint. I left her eye alone, just painted around it.

I'm wanting to do some Pacific Northwest/Humboldt/Lost Coast Ponies. This one is Trillium. I have a whole bunch drawn out including a banana slug pony and a redwoods pony. I was trying to think of a theme to go off of because I was only coming up with crap so I thought of things that remind my of where I live.

On that note, I have photos I want to show off that I took the other day while walking around in the woods near my house. It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside. There's also some photos from the beach a few days later...again, a beautiful day. I'm definitely going to be missing the North Coast this summer.

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At Maura's request:

nobody@vox.com(Jen) — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:59:42 -0700

Maura_ea wanted to know a little more about this intern thing I'm leaving to do soon so: this internship is to gain hands-on experience in zookeeping. I've been applying to zoos all over the country and was finally accepted into the Utica Zoo's internship program in upstate New York. It'll be 10 weeks of hands-on training...I'll basically be working as a zookeeper 40 hrs/week under an experienced keeper, learning the behind-the-scenes stuff, how to prepare food, clean enclosures, work with the animals, and doing informal presentations/walk-abouts with the animals. Basically it's all the stuff I didn't learn at college that's important to landing a job as a zookeeper. It's kind of funny to think that I have a bachelor's degree and can tell you intimate details of how an animal is put together and works down to a cellular, nay, molecular level but I don't know the first thing about keeping one alive other than "give food and water" but elephants and tigers require a different level of care than my pet dog and cat. I'll be finding out more when I get there. It starts May 27th and end August 5th. Mike's staying here so we'll be long distance for those few months but we've done it before and we can do it again. We've got webcam and the phone/webchat/skype so we can talk all the time. I'll be living in a dorm which will be weird...I've always had my own room. Even when I went away to college I lucked out and got a single room. The only person I've ever shared a room with is Mike. I'm not sure how I'll do sharing a room with another woman. I'm curious too if I'll be the oldest there...alot of people do their internships during summer vacation while still in college, not a year and a half after they graduate. We'll see how it goes!

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