Well howdy y'all!
Just kidding :D
I have arrived in Bridgeport, TX and have settled in for the most part. Just a warning, this post will be a little photo heavy, but most of them will be. This will be just a little update on what I've been up to. A little teaser before we go back to the beginning: I have been sore for three and a half days.
Okay, back to Tuesday:
This is what I got to fly in, and it was lovely. Torrential downpours all morning and afternoon.
I felt like I was flying in limbo, nothing around me but white. I was prepared for this the entire 4 and a half hours.
Mmmm, yes.
But then the sun came out, and the clouds were AWESOME.
Texas sunset :D
I got in just after sunset, and was pleased to find my checked bags were some of the first to come down the conveyer belt thing. The very first night was basically settling in and unpacking, but I was pleased to find out there were domestic kitties here!
This is Bagheera, one of two kitties here. The other, Rikku, is the lump in the second picture. The rest of the first night was getting to know Rachel, the previous term intern who is training me and the other intern. I could also hear some very loud noises from the big kitties surrounding the intern housing, which was exciting. It wasn't quite roaring, but something else.
The next day I cleaned the whole housing area: kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc. Then I got to meet some lemurs while cleaning their indoor and outdoor enclosures with Rachel. I won't go into too much detail, but just imagine entirely scrubbing down a room...ceiling to floor and that is what we did, then scooped the poop. :P
Noella, the other intern, arrived soon after we ran out of Clorox wipes and had to stop cleaning the indoor enclosure for the day. The rest of the day was getting to know Noella and making a run to Walmart to get groceries and some inventory stuff for C.A.R.E. Then nightly chores, which we couldn't help with because we're baby interns who can't do anything yet.
Morning duties consist of feeding the lemurs, Bindi the Coati, giving out medication, and watering all the big cats. Noella and I follow Rachel around the facility learning where all the hoses are and what water buckets they go to. There are around 40 cats so it's a lot of information to take in. Repetition is our friend.
Nightly duties are very similar to the morning with feeding lemurs and Bindi, but they get different food. The lemurs get lots of fruits and veggies along with their morning-type food and Bindi gets some fruit and other stuff. Then watering all the buckets.
Thursday was cleaning day which means we clean all the pens and this happens every four days. Some volunteers always show up to help with the tremendous amount of work. I'll write about cleaning day in another post to get into detail but it is a WHOLE lot of work. Oh, and of course morning and night duties.
Friday consisted of morning duties, we finished cleaning the lemur enclosures, and were taught lots of new things. We learned how to drive the gator, the tractor, and how to work the bucket of the tractor. Then...we got to watch the butchering of a cow which was the leopards and cougars dinner that night. No details because most people don't want to hear it. But I got covered in blood from carrying cow legs into the gator's mini truck bed thing. Those things are friggin heavy, especially the hind legs. Then nightly duties again without us, but Noella and I prepare the night food so Rachel delivers it and does the watering but we still feel bad we can't help. We can't help because it is super dark out and we don't know the layout of the facility well enough to be traveling it at night.
Saturday rolled around and had tours starting at 11 am. Morning duties and general cleaning around the house to make it nice for people was pretty much all we did until the first tour. We got to listen in on two tours and see how different people run it, and it was really fun!
I apologize for the lack of big cat pictures in this post, but when I took my camera with me for night duties tonight, it got too dark too quickly to get any good photos. I will be taking it with me for morning duties so hopefully when I get the chance to write another post, there will be some.
After tours, we just had to do night duties and since it was pretty early, we took our time in preparing the lemur food to make sure they got plenty of variety (as always) but we wrote down exact measurements of everything so that it can be as precise as possible to not waste anything. We also ate a little snack before going out to get a little energy.
Here's a little preview for my next post. It will include LOTS of animals! Oh, and as I'm typing this, I can hear Sampson, one of the lions, roaring in the night. Oh and now Tabula (a lioness) is roaring back. :D
Oh and it almost reached 70 degrees today ;) Have a nice night/day!
