Ohio visit

I visited my brother and sister in law in ohio earlier this month with my dog Tesla (corgi).  She had the time of her life with their dog Calla (lab/chow mix).  Honestly my brother had no idea so much energy could come out of such a little dog, but she wore Calla out completely.

So while we were there I went to Cosi (science museum) where my brother works where they had a new adventure exhibit where you had to find clues and solve puzzles to help find the "treasure"  It was a huge area made to look like ancient ruins.  They also had a mythbusters exhibit with several of the experiments from the show and some ones they made just for the exhibit.

Then we went to Thurmans cafe: as seen on man vs. food on the travel channel.  Tiny...I mean TINY place.  We put our name on the list at 3pm on a friday, with full intention to sit at the bar when something came open.  45 mins later we finally got 2 seats at the bar when the host came up and said do you want to sit here or at the table behind you?  We chose the table since our name finally came up. Remember this is 3pm we had to wait that long.  It was really good food, but I probably wouldnt go for normal eating time I cant imagine how long of a wait it would be.

Some of the other food we ate....one of my favorites raising canes and some deep dish pizza!

I also went to the columbus zoo where my brother was working an event that day for his job.  While in line for the tickets someone handed me 2 tickets to get in for free.  Since it was just me I kept one and gave another to a woman with her baby.  I then wandered around until my brother was done around 3.  I also bought a painting done by their reticulated python being sold by one of the keeper groups.  Adding it to my other animal paintings.

the ever entertaining polar bears at the columbus zoo

he caught the live fish in the pool when the keeper
threw fish food and they started jumping to eat....

flying fox

baby gorilla with the lead keeper

We also went to the cincinnati zoo....I wanted to see all the changes since I last was there.  They have a new africa exhibit and updated the giraffe yard.  I also wanted to see the renovations done to the reptile building.  I also bought a pretty great shirt....well I think it is...it has a speedometer and instead of numbers with the tick marks it had different animals....but it is actually pretty accurate.

4 out of 5 of the masaai giraffe

pallas cat

fossa

bat-eared fox

caracal

First week of July

I had a second interview but did not get the position...most likely they wanted someone to start right away and I am going on a trip to see my brother for a bit.  Anyways applied for a temporary keeper position...which I would love to get so we will see.

Wednesday was going to asia trail where I was mainly at cats and otters.  I also was able to see the fishing cat kitten trying to fish.  He was just publicly named Wasabi, and is super cute. I previously posted a video of this cuteness on here.

Wednesday after I got home I found out the town was having the 4th of July fireworks so we cooked some steaks and and listened to the festivities in the park next to our house.  Around 930 we went out to watch the fireworks and my husband decided it would be a good idea to take our dog...yeah horrible idea.  She went crazy and started barking and flipping out.  I had him take her home and she ran upstairs to her sleeping crate so he let her stay in there and turned on music for her so she could calm down.  When we came home we also found the cat under the bed, but luckily she came out when I called for her.  I gave them both treats for the ordeal and it took some coaxing but Tesla finally decided the backyard wasnt a horrible place. 

Thursday I was at american trail and I was able to basically do the beaver feeding demo on my own with a keeper there for support.  When I was talking about what they eat: rodent chow and produce a lady asked me if they ate rodents in the wild, I then had to tell her that rodents are actually herbivores so the chow pellets are actually compressed plant material not compressed rodents.... After the day ended I was walking back to my car while on my phone when a 10ish year old had a water gun and sprayed it in my face.  I was like really? and then almost started yelling at his parents for it but remembered i was in my zoo shirt so i just left super pissed off.

Anyways so here are my adorable animals!

Fishing Cat Kitten (Wasabi) Born May 17th

Jobless and stress free

Well within the last week I quit my job at petsmart and honestly feel so much better.  Definitely less stressed about going to work only to find that no one did their job while I was gone and having to clean up their messes.

Also had a phone interview for an animal shelter to be an "intake" caretaker....basically taking care of the animals.  Just got a call back today for an interview in person tomorrow and to see if they will accept my proposed salary amount.  Its a seasonal job so I will continue to look for other opportunities and actually applied for a keeper position at the zoo that just opened up!

I found a pretty exciting find on the curb of a house nearby.  Its a 1950s Telefunken radio that still works.  Hoping to have it appraised and hopefully can get some money for it.  I cant believe someone would throw that out!

Zoo was pretty busy this past week, the dc zoo had one of their red pandas escape so when I was there we cleaned really fast and then allowed hana and hank to go out for a while in the yard while the other volunteer and I cleaned the otter inside areas.   After putting the 2 bears away we had a quick feeding demo and then the director of animals, the curator, and all the keepers, 1 intern, and 3 volunteers were outside staring at the red panda yard for an hour and a half in 95+ degree heat.  Then we had the weekly meeting and finished up preparing stalls for later that day.  Thursday started with preparing the fish for the seals and sea lions, one of the keepers started feeling sick so she went home and another left at noon for an appt so it was down to 1 keeper and me.  Then we had a high school student that is starting to volunteer for a few weeks because of a local program, so we showed her a few things before her supervisor came to take her for paperwork.  We fed beavers and did a mini demo about them and then put out food for the otters.  When we came back another keeper decided to come in to help out and get some overtime.  I prepared the next days' morning buckets of fish and watched the feedings for the afternoon.

Pictures:

Hank feeding from manmade termite mound

giant dragonfly

Look at this amazingness!

Telefunken Hi fi system from west germany

Hank the sloth bear among other animals

Hank and Hana first week out in the yard

having the time of his life

exploring everything

yay the pool

otters and bubbles

harbor seal resting

squeegee posing

Fishing cat kitten and mom lurking in the background.
 Photo compliments of the National Zoo facebook page 

Hank exploring his ledge

Life Right Now

I feel like my life is in limbo.  Its been an interesting week to say the least, yesterday I put in my 2 week notice at Petsmart and earlier this week i found out I did not get the job at the aquarium.  So therefore I have been applying to a bunch of jobs including being a biological aide, biological technician, and park ranger all for the government, a contract and temporary naturalist, a butterfly exhibit assistant manager, and several summer camp instructor positions.  If nothing contacts me by the time Im done at Petsmart I will apply for the humane society as a petcare person or manager.  

Wednesday was spent instead of going to the zoo I went to several nature centers and asked about jobs....volunteering is all they have for now especially if they are connected to the government due to the financial sequestration.  Positive note is that the Audubon Naturalist Society emailed me back about the contract naturalist position and is keeping my resume for the fall, but she did pass my resume on to the director for summer camps.  

Other than that Thursday was pretty interesting because the weather had been predicted to storm pretty bad twice once in the morning and once during the evening commute.  Well I still went to the zoo and was working on fish food prep when the sky became black we thought the worst was there in the morning but luckily it just rained a little.  The worst of it came when I was driving home, you could see the wall of rain coming and then all of the sudden it was a torrential downpour with a lot of wind.  I could barely see the lines on the road and we were all going around 10 mph due to all of the rain and water on the road.  Luckily it only lasted 5 minutes but it was crazy.  I even heard the storm created a tornado but I wasnt near it at the time.  Last year's derecho was much....MUCH worse, but it still wasnt fun to be in the thick of it in my car.  The weathermen say this happens maybe once a year or every other year.

Meanwhile I have been busy these past 2 weeks I have been busy animal sitting, first for one of my coworkers and her hamster and this weekend for one of my neighbors and their dog.

Ok so.................adorable dog pictures are in order I believe:

during bath

hate me why you????? ~yoda

all fluffy and clean!

So I have officially become corgi obsessed i follow corgi blog pages and have joined this social site called packlove.com where you make a page for your own dog and they are grouped by breed.  To become a part of the site you need to have someone invite you though.  I love looking at other peoples' dogs even if they arent corgis.  I even was able to find Tesla's brother who lives in california named Story.  He's pretty adorable and looks very similar but without the 2 face affect.  Meanwhile look at a few pics from the dogs i follow and you can check out their websites:

http://corgnelius.tumblr.com/

http://www.chroniclesofcardigan.com/

http://simonsaysbark.tumblr.com/

http://wafflesthecorgi.com/

http://thingsonhazelshead.tumblr.com/

http://pudge.corgiaddict.com/

Random pictures lately

Got my haircut for the interview this week....just an inch or so off the length.  Makes the bangs look closer to being grown out.  Had a lovely day off for the week yesterday....watched a lot of tv, mostly castle.  

Today was asia trail where I helped out down at cats/otters.  We first put out otter food and then went down to look at the red pandas.  Recently the zoo acquired a new red panda named rusty.  He is almost a year old and Shama is 5 or 6.  We then went to help out at a blood draw procedure for the female panda and a mock ultrasound, and by we I mean the 2 keepers while i stood on the side and handed them honey water, but i still liked seeing it.  After the ultrasound was finished by the pandas' choice she got really excited about the jelly and rubbed it all over herself.  It was really funny.  We then fed the red pandas and cleaned the yard, while trying to avoid a pushy guest.  I then helped set up the yard for otters, let them out and cleaned the stalls inside.  After I finished the keeper wanted to have me help her set up a few logs in the clouded leopard yard and dig a hole to put a post for support.  

We then set up clouded leopard stalls after letting out one of the leopards and waited for the curator to come because of the new fishing cat kitten from a few weeks ago.  He wanted to check in on the routine for the mama cat and get a good look at the kitten.  After that we went down to help at pandas again picking up some bamboo before standing outside the red panda yard with the other keepers keeping a watchful eye on the newbie and Shama.  Around 11:30 we went back up to sloth bears and did the demonstration before lunch and the meeting.  After the meeting we prepared the enrichment for sloth bears and put them in the stalls, then one keeper had us go down to otters to come up with more ideas for the otter wood structure for the yard.  A large group of volunteers is coming in on friday to help grab wood and help build the basic structure.  Then we will be putting fun stuff on the structure as enrichment.  By that time it was time to go home, so overall a good day.

Corgi's got back!

Chip the hamster - hammy sitting

Pre-haircut do 

Tai the Clouded leopard

Shama the Red Panda

Khali the Sloth Bear acting silly 

Otters! 

Eyed Elater - random beetle we found at the zoo can pop up 4 feet in the air

Elektra and her kitten (credit: Tallie Wiles, Smithsonian's National Zoo)