Shadowing Mammals 1 department- amazing day!

I AM SO HAPPY! AH, today was absolutely wonderful fun! I'm just sitting here sipping away at iced coffee, singing my little heart out, and smiling as big as can be. I'm tickled! Here's why:

Today I got to hang out with the keepers in Mammals 1. The Mammals 1 department takes care of our elephants, cheetahs, giraffes, rhinos, and deer. Basically, the coolest animals at the zoo are under their care. So, naturally, getting to spend a day with these animals was an exciting proposition, but actually doing it was positively magical. Honestly, my heart is so full of happiness when I think of today's activities that I think I could cry and sing and dance all at once! I feel almost manic with glee. I'm laughing to myself. And guess what?! I DON'T CARE! I'm just so full to bursting of flowers and sunshine and all the good things in the world.

Now that I have utterly spazzed out, I will try to calm my racing heart enough to actually explain the stuff I got to do today that made me so happy.

Part 1- Baby deer! So remember Squirt that little cutie who was in the vet wing for a few days? He's been out of the vet wing for a little while now, and he's growing strong and bright. He's still tiny and adorable, wobbly on his long, skinny legs, and this morning I got to help feed him and his sister Cassie. They eagerly sucked the bottles, skinny bodies filling with the warm milk, and long eyelashes blinking happily. They decided that today might be a good day to try them out on the yard with the other does and their babies. After releasing them out there, we had to watch them for quite some time to make sure that no does would beat up on them, especially since Squirt is so little. As we stood in warm sunshine, grass lush, soft, and green spreading around us, yellow coneflowers blossoming through the field, and we watched this yard, I felt the most overwhelming sensation in my heart. Among the two mothers were seven babies, all running and leaping and playing just for the joy of using their bodies to carry them, dancing for life. Squirt and Cassie, after some initial timidness, fit right in and let their little legs carry them at great speeds, leaping up and twisting tiny bodies mid-air to test their landings. I felt the sense that life, just in its existence, is beautiful. I felt the fact that all of these molecules and all of these cells and all of these reasons are so little compared to the simple feeling, the knowledge, that to simply breathe is a precious gift. I saw that new life abounding, and I knew that one day I will grow old. But though I grow old, newness will spring again and will follow me. Twas never yet a springtime when the buds forgot to bloom. The earth renews what grows weary and the miracle of living possessed me with such force that I was soothed and enflamed all at the same time.

 Cassie runs free

Squirt being timid at first

Part 2- After the deer, we got to do work with elephants. As I have mentioned, we have 3 female elephants here at the zoo- Tonya, Binti, and Rolinda. They are all extremely smart and beautiful. We brought them into the barn and got them tethered by a foot, and then we headed out to to what every zookeeper does best- shovel poop! The yard was nice and full of it this morning, as the elephants had stayed out there the night before. It felt so good to get out and just use my muscles in the sun, to sweat and to see the fruits of my labor come to fruition. Once the yard was nicely cleaned, all four full wheelbarrows of the fun brown stuff hauled away, we went inside the barn. The girls get cracks in their feet due to wear and tear, and they must have coppertox added to them to keep them dried up. the coppertox is a lovely shade of deep green, and the elephants are so well trained for their pedicures. They are very responsive to commands, and when asked to hold a foot up to the bars, behind which the keepers stand, they put it up kindly and let them scrub the toes, rinse them, and add the coppertox to the nails, in such a way that they appear to have gotten their toenails painted green! The girls also got fed some grain and veggies this morning, and I got to give each of their trunks a little loving as we passed by. How incredible it is to hold the trunk of an elephant. They are so exploratory and surprisingly soft. The bridging of the gap between man and animal is just so beautiful to me, and touching elephants trunks just warms my heart.

Tonya posing

Part 3 -Next, I got to go with two of my favorite people here at the zoo up to the rhino house. For enrichment, the rhinos get to use their prehensile lip to paint. So, lucky little me got to pick out three colors; yellow, turqoise, and purple were my choices. A piece of paper was taped to a wooden board and a dot of each color was applied to the paper. Jumbe, a handsome rhino boy, used his lip, with the assistance of a keeper, to swirl the colors so beautifully. It is abstract and wonderul and was painted by a rhino. Art and animals in one thing?! Does life get any better than this?! I can't say I believe it does. I will cherish the painting forever! After that, I got to do some super fun cleaning in the way of hosing and bleaching, and then to the best part.

Isn't it lovely?!

The master artist, Jumbe

Part cuatro- Drumrollllll, this is the best part of my day....slash life, maybe? Okay, if you read my blog, you may have read the entry about petting giraffes one night, and you may remember that I was highly ecstatic about this event. Well, today trumps that time by alot, so you can imagine how dang excited I am. Maybe you can't actually, unless you know me very well, and you've seen me at my craziest. I'm just exuding rays of sunshine right now. We got some raw potatoes, carrots, and sweet potatoes and trumped down to the edge of the giraffe yard. The fence is low on that side, so the giraffes can bend their necks over and get to your level. The first eager soul was Nyela, the pee-headed pig (a nickname I have given her due to her habit of sticking her head under other's urine stream, and also due to her voracious eagerness to eat the produce I had for her today). Cute juvenile she is, just loped right over to me and searched my bucket and hands for treats. I gave her some happily, and called the other girls over. After some coaxing by showing them the fruit and shaking the bucket, the other two girls came over, and this is when the joy just ensued. Three little giraffe girls all up against the fence just leaned their heads down and were looking everywhere for food. Despite their eagerness to get the food initially, they rubbed their faces all over mine, their soft noses taking the pieces of food gently and slowly. For some reason, that was precious to me. Possom is a notorious licker, and she bent down to my face, licking my hair, my cheek, and allowing me to kiss her nose. We nuzzled for some time while I giggled gleefuly. A dang giraffe was rubbing faces with me- a giraffe! I think I could have stayed exactly in that position for the rest of my life and never have grown tired of it. I'm honestly in love. Ah, how my heart bursts with joy. How can I ever be sad again?

Part cinco- Oh, another thing we did this morning was feed cheetahs and apply fly repellent to their ears. The repellent is a sticky substance, the shade of bubblegum pink, and it's pretty great to see the cheetahs with their ears all painted in it. The cats come inside their stalls and go into what is known as a squeeze. Essentially, it is a thin box where they can enter, lie down, and be tong-fed meat while another keeper uses a swab to put the stuff on their ears. One of the cheetahs is a strange little thing with an interestingly blank stare, and as he got his ears done, he kept making these chirping noises. Jason is a goof. They are such gorgeous cats, and being that close to them was a real treat!

Seis- After lunch, I went to help finish up the giraffe house cleaning, so more hosing and bleaching. And the the oh so fun task of cleaning out the drains clogged with poop and hay. But, something to neat happened to me today as I was in there! I was singing while I hosed, an obscure, ethereal song from Lord of the Rings, and all of a sudden I heard someone else's voice. I peeped around the corner to see a lady sitting in the giraffe house, and when I fell silent for a moment, I heard that it was her, singing along with me! I started my tune once again, and we went on singing together until the song was done. I looked out at her to give an appreciative wave or word, but she simply got up and walked calmly out. It was a very connected moment, and it gave me hope in remembering there are people as strange as me in the world.

Beyond that, I fed some rhinos veggies that they loved, smelled sweet hay and feed that drew me so strongly home that I just wanted to jump in it and play, and pranced around with a smile on my face. Great day! Great great day!