Current Mood:
11:33 a.m. - 02/15/2008
Who would have thought that picking up lion and tiger crap and feeding them dead animals could be so much fun lol
So Tuesday I started my work as a keeper's aide with the lions and tigers exhibit and it was soooo awesome! I loved it. I don't think I've ever loved a job more than I loved that one. Which is strange because a lot of it involved cleaning up crap. Literally. I cleaned the outdoor exhibit, then the cages indoors, then the forest carnivore outdoor exhibits. But it was just so awesome being so close to lions and tigers and interacting with them. Of course I can't touch them, but I'm literally standing less than 5 feet away from them. They are sooo cute. its crazy how much their mannerisms are like that of a housecat. Something else I have to do is help prepare the diets, which is also gross because it involves handling lots of meat, dead mice and birds and rabbits, but again its all worth it to get the experience that I am getting.
And the people there are so great. There's a lot of down time, so we were sitting around talking for a while and its funny to contrast the down time casual talking with them to the downtime casual talking with my HUD coworkers. So at HUD we might start out by talking about our pesonal feelings on some kind of Cap Fund issue thats going on like when we're gonna get a new definition of significant amendment, or waht a viability test is or fungibility, and our feelings about how certain people conduct business and whether we think certain things should go into the proposed rule. Then we might branch off into a sidebar topic about cooking or restaurants, or movies we've seen. All stuff that is pretty boring and of little interest to me. Often times I feel like shooting myself when they get into those long conversations about stuff like that.
Now at the zoo during the down time, it started with a casual conversation about how to shift the lions and tigers into the outdoor exhibits. Which cats should go where and at what time. What the best approach to getting all of the cages cleaned and the cats shifted would be. It then switched to the eating habits of our poor old fishing cat, and whether or not the caracals are ready to be introduced to each other for mating. All work related stuff that was actually interesting. Then when we branched even further into the non work related stuff the conversation was much more interesting than cooking and stuff. We talked about relationship problems, drinking, sex life etc. I loved it. I just realized that that is where I belong. Working in a zoo being around animals that I love, and people that have the same interest as me. Its just so much fun! And I found out that as a keeper's aide I track down how many hours I work so that if there is ever an opening for an actual keeper position I have a record of my experience and it looks really good on the application even if I don't have the formal schooling for it or whatever. Apparently lots of keepers have started out where I am. So I am super excited! This is seriously the best thing that could have happened to me!
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