I’ve been trying to write up my notes from the red wolf master plan meeting last week and update you on things learned and the status of our two brothers and where they might be next year, but it has been so busy. I promise I will write about the wolf meeting in my next post, but let me tell you a little about yesterday:

A Keeper was out sick.

I went to pick up a new chest freezer for the bear house. I arrived at 9:10 and the store did not open until 9:30. I arrived at work with the freezer, which couldn’t be taken directly to the bear house because it had to be swapped out for one 4 inches shorter from the building. We unloaded the freezer, and worked on unloading and moving the existing freezer out and down to the bear house…

Katy told me were were out of greens for the animals. We didn’t have enough to get through the day. Additionally, a speciality light bulb for some turtles had blown and we needed a replacement. I ran out to the stores to get all needed items, and did make it back in time for a previously scheduled meeting (I was 5 minutes late to be honest).

3 truckloads of stonedust for a farmyard project had not arrived in the morning as expected. The delivery truck was having issues. One of the keepers kept an eye out for the trucks to arrive. I saw Katy driving around on our service vehicle with her lunch in the empty seat next to her. Additionally, about 10 boxes of supplies arrived in the gift shop, including 250 pounds of nuts!

The bear exhibit had to get mowed- an extra project on an already busy day. Weed-eating on the main bear viewing deck got done, but the bear moat was covered in grasses that needed to be skimmed, and then the drains needed to be checked throughout the day to prevent clogging.

All-in-all for one crazy day, everything that needed to get done got done, and there were some pretty cool things to watch: To keep Ursula busy while we mowed we gave her a whole watermelon. She picked it up in her mouth and walked about 50 feet across the exhibit and started eating it under a shady tree. Then, when the keepers were skimming the bear pool Mimi tried to grab the pool skimmer. Gus appeared to be scared of it and he would run away. It seemed that Virginia would try to grab it, but when it moved she too would run away.

I spent much of yesterday moving without stopping to think, and laughing a lot. It was a fun day, mostly because the keepers who I was working with had everything under control and appreciated the absurdity of the day!