It’s the day before Thanksgiving and everyone is hard at work right now. The holidays are always hectic for us in the Animal Department because we are usually down at least one keeper at any given time from the months of mid November until early January. Of course we all like to take some vacation time to be with our friends and families, but the animals still have to be fed and cared for no matter what.

Even though all the keepers work around the holidays, we always have fewer keepers here on the day of a big holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. On these holidays, the main objective is to make sure the animals are fed, cleaned and given any necessary treatments. This means that any other jobs or projects that were scheduled for that day get shifted to the day before or after the holiday. That makes the days around the holiday very busy, but with teamwork we still get it done!

With so much going on during these months, it’s easy to become a bit overwhelmed and fatigued sometimes. But we make the most of the holiday time by occasionally bringing in tasty baked goods for everyone to eat, or maybe even doing something silly to lighten the mood. Keeper Larry made us all laugh when he came to work in a very humorous costume on Halloween! But the best part about the holidays in the Animal Department is our annual holiday party, where all the keepers and our volunteers bring in food and cards or presents for a potluck. It’s always a lot of fun and it’s a great time for us to bond as a team.