Apologies

Hello to anyone that may have started to read this. I definitely am a failure for not keeping this blog. It has been over a year since my seasonal zookeeper aide status has ended (for that season anyway). Unfortunately this past summer I was subjected to warehouse work...with people...oh joy. However, this is my last year of college. Scary. There is no emoticon that can display my fear of joining the ranks of society, so I won't even bother. Yes, fellow humans, I am graduating this spring and the search for a job has already begun. Aza.org, and several other websites are now on my frequently visited list on google chrome. I used to think that it was going to be easy having a full time zoo job, but now when I go every week to volunteer I have come to the realization more and more that I really know nothing. Nothing in my education thus far, save for my internship at the zoo, has taught me anything that will be of value in a zookeeping career. Sort of regretting not doing that two year training program in California now.... Ah well. Hopefully I can keep updates coming better this year. Only 14 more credits and I am outta here and into the real world.

Leah Grace

Updates and whatnot :D

So, yet again, I totally fail at this whole blogging thing.

As of now, I have spent one summer seasonal keepering (is that a word? Never mind, it is now), volunteering for the equivalent of almost two years volunteering, and have been interning since September, all at John Ball Zoo.

Today I changed four aquarium filters on my own and got to feed the two huge tanks of fish, which I was super excited about, dork that I am.

Thus far in this "career" I have learned to open the petting zoo area, frog exhibits, trail, clean upper barn (where education animals are kept), gone through the animal handling program to be able to take said education animals out on program, learned how to take keeper notes and fill out medication and feed charts, learned how to clean almost every area in the zoo, and fed a sloth....

I feel slightly accomplished....sort..of....

Well, that's all I've got for now.

More interesting stories to come later...

First Summer

Sorry, I am TERRIBLE at doing this....hopefully I'll pick up once I get some more available computer time.

Let's continue the story:

It was the summer of 2007, I was seventeen, painfully shy, and seriously in love....with animals. I had just gotten into John Ball Zoo's Teen Volunteer Program and I was so excited, and nervous since human interaction isn't exactly my forte. I was first assigned to Keeper Andrea, who was intimidating to say the least. She had the South American run and was very particular about how things had to be done. Andy spent the better part of her morning showing three of us klutzy teens how to clean all her stalls, including....YEEK...the Guanaco stalls. For those of you who don't know, guanacos are in the Llama and Alpaca family, and their favorite potty spot was right over the drain in their stall. I ended up cleaning said drain with my bare hands before the Seasonal Keeper who was helping her laughingly showed me where the gloves were.

A few weeks later I was paired with Keeper Dave. He had the aquarium and coolest of all, the Magellanic penguins. Dave can come off at first as a very stoic person, not as intimidating as Andy, but still, so a shy teenager...you get the picture. The first thing he said to me after talking with our Teen Coordinator was, "Can you swim?" Of course I could swim, so he led me and one other Teen Volunteer to the aquarium, handed us each a plastic yogurt bucket filled with krill and other fishy delicacies to feed the huge fish tanks and left us to the work. Of course this was fantastic. I could sit and watch the fish and sharks eat in peace and quiet. All too soon Dave was there to retrieve us ready to hand out another task; he and I were to weigh out fish for the penguin diets. We both grabbed boxes of fish out of the freezer and set to work. The radio in the aquarium kitchen was set to some oldies station or other and so that filled the silence until Dave began to sing along. I wasn't expecting it so I sat there unsure of what to do for a few seconds, but Dave just kept singing along with the song replacing half the lyrics with animal or zoo related words.

...To Be Continued.

How it all begins...

Ok, so as the title of this here blog says, this is sort of my journey to living my dream....to be a zookeeper that is. So enjoy the stories...here goes.

For as long as I can remember I've always loved animals. No, not just in stories, on t-shirts, or the little plastic things you can buy just about everywhere, though I did love those too; I loved going to the zoo and watching them. I loved holding other peoples pets. Snakes, lizards, frogs, furry things, birds...you name it, I wanted it or just had to at least pet it once...or a couple thousand times. At the age of seven I had decided that I wanted to be a Marine Biologist and while all my classmates would spew out the obvious "Fireman, Nurse, Doctor" or, "Police Officer" I would say so, and get patted on the head with a "Oh, that's nice". Most were sure I would change my mind. Since then, I have...but to something similar...Zookeeper.

So yes, I have pretty much had my career decided since the age of twelve and now that I've finally gotten started on this journey towards the final product I think that I'll share it with others who might share the same goal.