Boston to Bridgeport: Update

Hi everyone!

First off,

RACHEL'S BACK!!!!!

This post will be more of an update of what has been happening the last couple of days. They've been some busy ones. On Tuesday evening, Rachel flew back to CARE to help train the new summer interns that are coming a couple days after I leave, but she flew here a week early to help me out with everything, hang out, and to go on all the field trips I was supposed to go on during my internship. It already has been SO nice having her back.

We gave tours for second graders on field trips yesterday, and are giving three more today and there are a lot of kids. Two classes worth at a time, so it was a little stressful getting ready for that and planning everything out to make sure it ran smoothly. I'll talk more about that a little later, because the most important thing to happen recently was Raven. She went to the vet yesterday because of what we pondered to be a bite on her face. A couple mornings ago, she was in her lockdown with her meat from feed the night before and this isn't unusual, she isn't always out and about in the mornings, she is sometimes sleepy. I noticed her face looked a little swollen on the side when she picked up her head but she went back to sleep. She came out of the lockdown once we were done cleaning her enclosure and a little while later, Heidi is loading up the trailer to take her to the vet because her face got really swollen. Once they got back, the vet didn't know what was wrong so we just watched her all day. Yesterday morning we were hoping that maybe the swelling had gone down but when we checked on her, the swelling had gotten worse. It had spread to the other side of her face and her eyes were almost swollen shut. She was in her lockdown again and was in the fetal position to sleep. We went to get ready for the tour with the plan to check on her again after the tour was over.

The tours consisted of about 40 second graders from Bridgeport and a couple teachers, one of our volunteers, two past interns, myself, Heidi and Darrion. We were each assigned about 10 kids and our job was to ensure that our 10 kids behaved and we were responsible for them. Heidi gave the tour and it went very smoothly so we went to check on Raven right after. As soon as possible we got Raven into the transport cage and into the trailer to go back to the vet because we saw her nose was bleeding a little and the swelling had increased. Derek was home at that point so he was able to take the second tour of kids. We each got our 10 kids and made sure they were behaving. We got word after the tour that Raven had a cracked molar and they were removing the tooth.

We had originally thought that maybe a Black Widow spider bit her because there is a stone cave-like house in her enclosure that Spotty always hung out in that was known for having those spiders in them. Rachel and I went in and really checked for black widows and any other potential spiders but we found none, although we did get rid of several egg sacks and webs. Getting bitten by a black widow is very dangerous, especially for a leopard who doesn't weigh a whole lot. It could kill her.

Raven is currently in the vet center and will be for a little while to we can keep an eye on her and make sure she has everything she needs. Last night Rachel slept in the back of the vet center right next to the cage on a mattress. She made sure Raven had water, and was there just in case anything happened.

This morning we woke up to rain. Torrential rain. We got the call that the school cancelled the tours for today because of the weather so we'll reschedule them for a later date. At least it was warm rain, as I knew from doing meds and lemurs this morning. We also moved Bindi to her outdoor enclosure permanently so that she wouldn't be disturbing Raven. But this means we have to go outside to get her food and water bowls, so I got plenty damp this morning just from that. Then meds, etc. It's just been a soggy morning and will probably be a soggy afternoon but Rachel and I have plans to go on one of our field trips tomorrow morning, so that's something to look forward to!

So this was just an update on the last few days, but here are some pictures I got recently.