A daily blog of my internship
My daily reflections are more extensive than required, so I was told I don't need to have additional weekly reflections.
Any days that are bolded are highlights or important days!
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Day 28 (last day)
9:15 to 7:45
Today is my last day. I can't believe it. I'm not ready for this to end. I had a box of stuff for Lauran - the toaster oven and some other small things. I had a box of recyclables to bring in. And I had a box of stuff to get rid of. The strainer over one of the buckets in the food room is super gross and clogged so it doesn't work very well, so I bought a new strainer for them. I fed the dogs and cats and made popcorn and cut up fruit for Lenny. Josiah gave me the proper tools and a special cleaning spray so I could clean the inside of the terrarium. He told me to walk around and check all the areas from the other day for any new weeds until he came back. I used it to say bye to the cats too. I'm going to miss them. They all have such different personalities and it's been so cool to learn about them and know them. Then he sent me down to do the shed I started yesterday. I moved everything away from the wall and picked up all the salvageable metal bits, or what I deemed usable (I think there's a big difference). I organized the stuff and sorted it into piles that made sense to me. I swept up all the dirt and trash metal into piles then put all the crates and things against the wall at the front of the shed. By the time I was done it was a complete storm outside with a huge downpour and lightning. As you can imagine that sent me into a panic about tomorrow what with all the problems I had getting here... Something was going on in the office so I had to be really quiet and stay out of their way. Josiah took me up to the food room to load all the buckets into the step van and clean outside the food room for a Behind the Scenes tour. Then I started on vitamins. I had all the small kids done and two of the South girls when he came back up to drive down. I actually really enjoy doing vitamins. At first I thought it was really gross but now I like doing them. I got a little sad thinking about how that was the last time I'd be doing the vitamins. I ran out of pills for the last cat so went into the office to get two more. Josiah gave me Clorox wipes to clean the tables in the step van. They really needed to be cleaned. Something happened with the lions and they took off to deal with it. Later I found out that Leo and Etana broke down the door separating them and Niara, so they had to get the lions re-seperated and fed. I grabbed all 5 food buckets and started walking toward the lions. Josiah met me half way there in the ranger and took the buckets. There was some packages of beef that had been on top of Paul's bucket but Beth told me they were Duke's, she had just set them in there for a moment. I quickly ran them back up to the food room and put the meat back in the hot box. Then I watched the office for a bit while Beth took a tour. They sent me up to the food room to start weighing and washing buckets. I don't want to leave. There was only a few buckets in the van so I went to track down Lauran and Abby to see if they had more for me. Then I went up to the food room and weighed the kids who left stuff and washed what I had. I cut up Duke's food for his 4 pm. Abby delivered more buckets to me. We were trapped in the food room for a little while while Abbie had her Behind the Scenes tour outside. I cut up food for Duke's 6 pm meal. Lauran came up around 6 to make some replacer food for some kids but I was told to stay up there and finish washing everything. It was a last gift to get to finish washing. It really distresses me when I didn't get to finish. Then I was told to start detail cleaning the food room. I cleaned the trash can and washed the drain buckets. Then I was suddenly called to come down right away. Everyone is leaving in a hurry. I got to buy my souvenirs then we left. I didn't really say bye to the puppies or Lenny. It all happened so fast. We didn't have time to do my presentation today. So I don't have anything for my project at exhibition tomorrow. He said he'll call me and we can do it over the phone or Skype. We left in his jeep and drove to this place a few miles away. They just bought this huge space they're going to use as a visitor/information center and internship housing. We were going to check it out. It's so huge and fancy! I really wish they had this for me when I did my internship! Then all of a sudden everyone was talking about how they'd seen enough and were ready to leave. Too soon. It can't be over. I was sobbing as I said bye to everyone and thanked them. None of them really knew how to act or what to say. I really don't think I can leave. I had such an amazing experience and it was so much fun. To be honest I was crying all night while I got ready and packed. I am really going to miss it here.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Day 27
9:05 to 6:25
Today it was just Lauran and I. It's a fast day and we're supposed to be closed, but Keith and Judy decided to be open because we didn't make enough money yesterday. They said if people come we give them whatever they want, whenever they want it. So no set tour times. They were planning on going to Jefferson City today to talk to people about the large Carnivore bill, but stayed to help us. Since we're open it means someone has to stay in the house at all times. Meaning me. Most of the things on my list were not in the office so I made my own list of every possible thing I could do there. After taking care of the dogs and cats and Lenny I made a little fresh popcorn. Then I swept and mopped the office, and swept and mopped the gift shop and back room. We had people come in for tours so I walkied Lauran. While she was on a tour a family came in so I got Keith to come in. They were wanting a tour and a nature expedition. Josiah wasn't here to do that so Keith took them in the pinzgauer. Right after Lauran got back with the first tour some people showed up so she took them for a tour before the family came back. Three tours back to back... Judy watched the office for a bit and I went up to the food room to make some food Lauran needed. A bunch of the cats are getting meals, or the cats next to them are getting meals, so they get snacks. I was about to start power washing when Keith came to get me. I had cleared everything out of the food room too! Back to watching the office. I vacuumed the carpets, picked up the dog yard and swept the straw, and started to clean the terrarium. There's lot of dried water splashes coating the inside walls so I thought if I had time I'd wipe it out. I did one wall but it didn't really seem to do a whole lot so I abandoned that. While Lauran was on lunch I started to clean out the shed behind Tiki. They want me to move everything and sweep? It wasn't super clear. Then it was back to watching the house and finding things to do. I replaced the trash and recyclables and cleaned the bathrooms. I straitened merchandise and stocked the fridges. We closed a little early so I could help Lauran and Judy with the lions. While I was there I got to see several of them eat. They were handing food to Leo and Etana to distract them from Niara. Judah was going crazy for food. He was drooling and starting to foam at the mouth. When he finally got his snack he went nuts. He was leaping on the fence and pawing and shoving his open mouth on the trough. It was really cool to see the lions and help them. I went to the food room to clean a few things. Today was crazy but not as bad as we were both fearing.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Day 26
9:20 to 6:20
Usually we're closed Mondays and Tuesdays but we're open today. It was supposed to be my day off but they asked me to come in since we're open. I washed all the dirty dishes in the food room and took a knife to the big blocks of frozen ground chicken to break it up. It cut the block like a cake, then took each piece and broke it into small chunks so it would thaw faster. We had it sitting in the sun so it went really well. I cut up meat for Duke's 12 o'clock. I did Jaycee's bucket today which is basically just opening the Nebraska packages and breaking the meat up into pieces in the bucket. Because of dietary and health reasons, ground horse meat is the only meat she can eat. We don't like to use it, but she can't eat anything else. After lunch I went back up to the food room to wash tubs and start cleaning it (one of the many tasks on my list). Through this internship there are several careers I've determined I will never seek. They include being a vet, butcher, janitor and gardener. Lauran decided to just use the ranger to take down food today. When we were going over a bump about 30 feet from the office we hit a bump that dislodged several buckets. They went flying. The meat stuck to the rocks because they were warm. Three buckets fell off, but we were able to recover almost all the meat. The ground chicken was hard though. Midnight and Banshee were reweighed and had to have a little more ground chicken added to them. I worked on vitamins on the office step, doing them on top of the chest freezer outside. Pills today. I watched the office all afternoon while Lauran and Abby fed the cats. I cleaned the windows and mirrors, swept and mopped the bathrooms, cleaned the cat bathroom, and dusted the gift shop. I had people come in at one point and walkied for someone to come back. We had one tour all day. Not a whole lot of business. I went back up to the food room and started washing the buckets from today. Keith and Judy decided we should be open tomorrow because we didn't get enough business today. Tomorrow's a fast day though, and it's just Lauran and I. It will certainly be very interesting, and probably hard...
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Day 25
9:20 to 6:30
Josiah and I did the mentor interview this morning. Some of the things he said really affected me. I'm not sure I can leave. This place means so much to me, and feels so right for me. To hear what he said about why it's rewarding, and why he does what he does, was just incredible. I wandered around the front yard and the backyard and a few other little places weeding. While I was in the backyard I got to talk to some people waiting for a tour. Merlin was lying in the field and there was all this green grass around him and he was so pretty. The couple was really nice and I told them a little about Merlin. During lunch Keith was explaining the sounds the new walkies make, and in addition to random animal sounds, it makes a cell phone ringing sound. Lauran was in the food room and a few seconds later she says "Is there a phone up here?" They decide to mess with her and Josiah tells her she should answer it, and starts giving random directions to find it while Keith keeps pressing the button that makes the ringing noise. Finally Lauran's like "guys no, it's coming from my walkie." And Keith tells her if her walkie's ringing then she should answer it. He explains that theres a bluetooth connected to her phone so it's actually her phone ringing and she should answer it to see who's calling. She asks how to answer it and Keith says "just say hello." He presses the button again and Lauran says "hello." We were all cracking up so much. It was the highlight of my day. I got to go take pictures for a little while after lunch again! I worked on food data in the office until Josiah came back. He had me hose off one of the rangers and clean the seats because there's a Behind the Scenes tour later. I sorta cleaned the outside of the food room and broke down all the boxes. Then I quickly washed all the pans to bring down. The step van was roasting because the heater was going and the door was closed to try and thaw the food. I was left alone at the office to "clean anything that could be cleaned," and watch for people. I walkied when I saw people walking in and Josiah came to my rescue. I took buckets up to the food room and started washing. While everyone was entering numbers and counting pills in the office, I was told be be quiet and do something useful. So I cleaned the bathrooms.
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Day 24
9:15 to 6:20
If I were to come up with three words to describe my overall internship experience so far, including hotel time and days off, I'd have to say they were cleaning, dishes, and tiredness. Josiah is at a business event for the Ozarks Chamber of Commerce, so he left a list for me. First I finished raking up the leaves by Vincent's fence, and dumping them behind Tiki and Bambi. Bambi is adorable and funny. She'll watch me from her bedroom with her head just peeking around the corner, then when I walk away she'll run at the fence. Or she'll look at me then roll over on her back and stretch her legs in the air and roll around. I'll pretend I don't see her in the yard, and she'll stalk me to the end of the enclosure. It's really fun. I always listen to the tours because I learn new things about the cats each day. I learned that Tina has little white dashes on her face that are unique markings that make her easy to tell apart from the others. She was a privately owned pet and her owner had her declawed. When you declaw a cat - even house cats, you have to actually remove the last joint. Cats walk on their toes, but removing this joint forces them to walk flat-footed. Tina has developed arthritis because of this. I picked up all the leaves I could find in the backyard. While I was waiting for Abbie to give me something else to do I swept the office, picked up the dog yard, cleaned the bathrooms, wiped down the office counters, swept the nook, and swept the gift shop. One of the things for me to do today was walk a little ways along the road and down the Nature Expedition trail to pick up trash. I found a plastic tub that is part of the terrarium stuff so I washed it. She printed off the sheets I needed to finish the envelopes so it put two in each packet and sealed them. Then I went to pick up poop in the dog yards until Beth came down with the food so I could do vitamins. I managed to get all three yards done. We only had half the buckets because the others are still too frozen to bring down. I put vitamins in the ones we had. The most interesting thing to me, is that as much as I hated vitamins the first week because it was gross and I was digging my fingers in raw meat, I've come to really enjoy doing it, and almost look forward to it. I enjoy the challenge of trying to beat my previous time, and knowing that I'm doing something helpful all on my own. Josiah was back so I asked him what to do. He was telling me about weeding when we heard the rest of the buckets were down. I added vitamins to the last buckets then took some dirty buckets up to the food room. There were lots of dirty pans and tubs up there to wash too. Lauran, Beth, and Abby all came up at the end. We were pulling food, weighing stuff, feeding Duke, putting Jaycee and Janina's pans down, cleaning up, washing stuff, taking out the trash, and putting everything in the walk-in. We were still a few minutes late getting back. Natalie's wedding is tonight. We missed the ceremony since it started at 6, but everyone was going to the reception. They all changed into pretty dresses and looked really nice! I'm really going to miss it here. I can't believe I only have a few days left. These next few days will be really challenging to get through. I think I'll miss the office dogs and Lenny the most. And talking to the cats, that's always super cool. I feel like I've found my place and I'm sad to leave it.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Day 23
9:25 to 6:45
I went to take out the plants for Lauran, but they told me not to because it was too cold. Watered the terrarium and replaced the giftshop trash. It's ironic, before I got here we were all wondering if all I'd get to do was pick up cat poop or clean enclosures, but yet I don't even get to do that, just clean the poop buckets. I cleaned several and also rinsed the outside of the baskets with bleach water. I sealed all the envelopes that had everything in them. Josiah sent me to rake up some leaves along Vincent's enclosure. I was dumping them behind Tiki again. Bambi was play stalking me. I came here for the tigers, but it wasn't them I fell for. Instead I fell in love with the small kids - the leopards (black and yellow) and the mountain lions. They're closest to the house and my chores so I've spent the most time with them. Like Tiki and sweet little Bambi. Each cat has such a different personality and you really don't have to spend all that much time around them to know each one. Bambi might be my favorite cat. I had to go in and watch the office for a bit. I worked on food log data until someone came back, then I went back to leaf raking. There's another Behind the Scenes tour today, so you guessed it, I cleaned the hotbox and walk-in and swept. Then I was going to wash pans to put in the step van for feeding but I only had one so Josiah brought up all the others. The ground chicken, which is in all the cats buckets, is completely frozen still. This was at 3:30. So we filled every tub we had with hot water and put all the buckets floating in the water. We broke up the frozen chunks into little pieces and continually mixed it and rotated the buckets in different water tubs. Natalie came and helped us. We had the heater going too so it was really warm in the food room. It took at least an hour to get all the ground chicken thawed and warm enough to feed the cats. Then we loaded the food buckets and took them down. We sent some to the Behind the Scenes tour right away without vitamins. Today was pills. Putting in the vitamins was almost impossible today. Everyone had almost entirely ground chicken, which was soup from thawing it. You couldn't make balls to pour powder into. It was just soupy mush. I had to watch the office for a little bit in the middle. Natalie's family was waiting in the gift shop for her. Tomorrow is her wedding, and then she leaves on her honeymoon. She was supposed to get married at the sanctuary but had to change the location because of weather. She was late for the rehearsal dinner. I won't see her again. Because the location was changed, none of us will make it to the ceremony. I'm going to miss Natalie, I really like working with her in the food room. After saying goodbye I went back to the vitamins. Blackie's bucket had giant frozen chunks in it (we didn't thaw it), so I took it inside and put it in front of Lenny's heater because it had to be thawed. I closed the house. I went to spread some straw in the North dog pen. Those dogs have some weird thing about straw. They all get so excited and won't leave you alone when you show up with new straw. All of them are like that, Luna especially. I finally got it spread out on the ground and not the dogs' backs. I grabbed an armful of buckets and carried them up to the food room. I didn't actually have time to wash any. I started rinsing the buckets when Abbie called me back to the office. This week has been pretty awful and hard with food. We're just not getting enough and the stuff we are getting isn't ideal, so we've been pulling a lot from the deep freezer and having to thaw it.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Day 22
9:10 to 6:30
I brought the big camera today. Josiah had an intern interview to do so he left me to sweep the gift shop and back rom. I cleaned the bathrooms. Then I worked on addressing the envelopes until he came back. Judy sent me to go try and fix Luna's hole again. I filled it with big rocks, then medium rocks, then small rocks, then little rock pieces and dirt and straw. Hopefully it'll work. One of the coolest things is that I'm learning new things about the animals everyday. Today I learned that Midnight is only 7. I finished addressing all the letters. We were short about 20 packets so I made some more and addressed them. After lunch I got to go take pictures for a few minutes. I really love taking pictures. I was able to get some pretty good ones even through the fences. I did the vitamins today, it was fish oil. I did all the buckets in 45 minutes, my new fish oil record!! Cleaned straw out of the outside dog kennel and brought up some fresh, but completely misjudged the amount of straw I needed and had to take the extra back down. I went up to the food room to wash stuff, then helped with Duke's food.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Day 21
9:25 to 6:15
I learned how to make popcorn today. I bought a new cat toy for the bathroom cats so I gave it to them this morning. I was sent up to the food room to wash stuff. They hadn't washed hardly anything because of the huge storm last night. Lauran's husband Jacob is doing an experiment with the tigers for school. He has two parts. One of the parts hides a piece of food in the tiger's enclosure while it's inside and then times how long it takes it to find the food. The other part has do with cardboard boxes. While the cat's inside, someone places a big cardboard box in the enclosure and then they time the cat to see how long it takes it to go up to the box and they also look at it's personality. Is it bold about approaching the box or does it tear it apart, etc. While I was washing stuff Jacob and Lauran came up to give Duke his box, and she let me watch what happened. He came out of his bedroom and immediately noticed the box and went for it. He sniffed it and pawed it a little then put his front legs onto the box and knocked it over. He sort of opened the flaps to play with it and look inside. Then he tore it into pieces and peed on it. Then he sniffed it again and tore off a few more pieces then wandered off. It was so cute to watch!! Super cool. Duke is really adorable. I cleaned the hot box doors and scrubbed the walk-in floor and swept outside for the Behind the Scenes tour that's coming later. We're sending out packets to a whole bunch of tour bus companies around the US that travel to Branson telling them about the sanctuary and inviting them to bring a tour group to see us. I made the packets awhile ago, but today I'm addressing them. I have lists of all the companies and their addresses. And I have to write our return address on each one too. I wasn't very good at it. I kept messing up or not paying attention to all the facts before I started writing an address. After about 10 though I got better. A big storm came in late afternoon. It was thundering and the lightning was really close. And super high winds. They said they get a tornado about once a year. Poor Miracle got super freaked out. She was panting like crazy, and shaking super hard. She was whining and barking. For a little while she was frantically pawing at the floor trying to dig out of the kennel. I did vitamins for most of the cats. It's pills today. The Behind the Scenes tours get to watch us feed the cats dinner so we sent the buckets for the cats they were at right away, and those didn't get vitamins. I weighed the buckets with leftover food and wrote down the numbers, then started washing everything. I made a bucket of ground chicken for Judy. She feeds it to her dogs. I used 7 pairs of gloves today. When I got back to the office I entered my food numbers into the food log.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Day 20
9:15 to 6:20
We're closed today and its a fast day. I dusted everything in the gift shop including the window sills, blinds, and fans. I also dusted a little in the office. Then I swept and mopped the office. There were a lot of phone calls today. I cleaned the cat bathroom. I ran up to the food room and brought down three buckets of food and a big tub to the pavilion near Tigger. It was pretty far to walk and the stuff was heavy. We had a situation today so Judy was helping us all day, and for a little bit Josiah and Abbie came down from their house to help out (it's their day off). They had me grab some blankets and things from the office and bring it to the pavilion. If you want to know about the situation from the past few days let me know and I can tell you after it's been released to the public. I helped haul back those big hampers of dirty straw. Then I took all of them down the hillside to dump over the barbed wire fence. Usually they dump old straw in the big pile far away but that would take a ranger and I can't drive it so they said it was fine today. I accidentally dropped the third basket over the barbed wire fence, so then I had to figure out a way over it without killing myself. I finished sweeping and mopping the bathrooms then got to take lunch. We have a monitor on the lions to make sure everything's fine with them and for a few minutes I got to watch it. It was really cool. Lauran took me up to the food room and I washed all the dirty things from yesterday, and cleaned it a little. I continued power washing the floor, but today I got safety goggles! It was nice not having chunks of floor flying into my eye. The floor is so gross. And we do hose it off every night it's just amazing how much extra power we get from power washing. I'm only about half done. Duke has been doing really well lately so he's fasting today! Which is really good because there's no way we could have fed him every 2 hours with everything that happened today.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Day 19
9:15 to 7:25
I can't remember exactly what I did today. The past few days have been so busy and hectic, they're starting to blur together. I finished washing the poop buckets I started the other day. Then I bleach watered the outside of the straw baskets and rolled each poop bucket in a sanitizing solution. I was cleaning the bathrooms and organizing the gift shop before restocking the fridge when the situation from the other day came back and I wasn't allowed in the office while they figured it out. I filled the terrarium with water and picked up the dog yard, but there wasn't anything else I could do without going in the office so I asked if I could go up to the food room and start on vitamins. I wasn't sure if today was pills or fish oil and I didn't want to ask because everyone was crazy and busy so I just did the powders. The containers were almost empty so I used the rest up then I could wash the vitamin containers. Turns out it's fish oil. Then it was hard to remember which buckets had no vitamins, and which ones had powders and which ones had everything. I went up to the food room and worked on washing the buckets that were done and everything else that was up there. I worked more on power washing the floor. There are so many layers of crap on that floor!! When you do it the stuff flies everywhere so I had to move all the clean dishes out of the room. Pieces kept flying into my eyes (I know super gross) but it really hurt and just kinda freaked me out, I mean think about what it was… I weighed the buckets that came back with food in them and wrote down the numbers. In the office I wrote my numbers down in the food log. This was the first time I'd been in the office since earlier when the situation arose. Things are going to be crazy for awhile I think.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Day 18
9:10 to 7:05
For the first time the dogs didn't have any accidents overnight! Perhaps that was because they were let out at 2:30 when everyone was here, but I'm going to view it as puppy training progress. I went up to the food room to help Natalie. I was left to wash everything up there for awhile, then I helped with Duke. Natalie had to go down for a tour so Josiah came up and we did food. I cut up beef and moved the frozen chicken to different tubs and replaced the hot water so they would thaw faster. We didn't pull enough meat to thaw yesterday so we were short some. I cleaned up outside the food room because Abbie has a Behind the Scenes tour coming today, but they probably won't see inside the food room, just the outside area. I did vitamins for the cats that were done (we're missing 7 who still need food made). While I was in the office a woman called about local prices and I was able to give her the right information! Keith had me power wash the floor of the food room. All these different layers of crap that were coating the floor were flaking off and kinda flying everywhere. It was pretty gross. I only got a few feet done. The Behind the Scenes tour was outside so we couldn't go search for meat in the walk-in (there wasn't much there anyways). Lauran and I went to the deep freezer to search for stuff we could pull and start to thaw. It will take awhile to thaw all of it, but we were 40 pounds short. This was at about 5:15… I went down to the van to get the vitamins and bring them up and brought a few buckets with me. I put vitamins into the last few cats buckets then started to wash a few of the dishes up there. Tomorrow is going to be really hard to get through the food. We haven't pulled anything to thaw so it will take awhile tomorrow… And we don't get food from Quest until Monday so there's not much right now. Lauran and I didn't have a ranger up there so we had to walk down. I replaced the trash in both bathrooms and picked up the dog yard. Everyday I'm trying to spend a few minutes working with Oppie and training her. She's starting to get a lot of the tricks. Today was rough food wise. We were so busy today that I didn't get a lunch break, and I wasn't the only one.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Day 17
9:25 to 9:30
Tiki is doing fine! Something big happened with the lions so everyone was over there dealing with it. I helped bring them spotlights and extension cords. Then Josiah sent me to the office to sweep the floor and clean the bathrooms and straiten the merchandise. Someone called while I was there alone and I answered the phone and was helpful! I wasn't sure what was going on but I felt kinda useless all day. I started to wash out the poop buckets but didn't finish. I did all the vitamins then walked up to the food room with a bunch of buckets and pans to wash. They had me help with Duke's food so we didn't finish washing. Something amazing, exciting, interesting, incredible, unusual, unexpected, and extremely improbable happened today! But I'm not allowed to talk about it yet because were not telling the public yet. We were there worrying about and dealing with this until 9:30. And making super important decisions regarding this. Everyone's coming back at 2 AM to make more decisions and check the situation, but for now some of us are going home. Josiah and Abbie talked and then decided I didn't need to come back in, which really upset me because I wanted to be involved and helpful. So I made him promise to inform me about what happened. I woke up at 2:30 for a few minutes to read my update. Everything's all good and the situation was fixed for now, which was a huge relief. But the next few weeks are going to be crazy. I still can't believe this happened and that I get to be a part of it!
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Day 16
8:45 to 7:05
We came in early this morning to get everything ready and complete some morning tasks. The vet arrived at 9:30. We have a new gun we've never used before. They usually use a blow dart gun. You put the dart in and literally blow it out with your mouth, but that's harder to get long distance and all the cats recognize it. He explained how the gun works. It has an air pump. Just like a bicycle pump. One pump goes about 10-ish feet. We went outside and and he practiced shooting a hay bale to figure out how many pumps he'd need. These darts can only be used once with medicine. There's a little sleeve over the medicine hole and when it comes into contact with skin the sleeve is pushed back into the dart causing a charge to go off which releases the medicine. There's only one charge in each dart. When we were all ready the vet went in between the fences and cornered Tiki in her bedroom. Then he shot her with the dart gun. It took her about 10-15 minutes to go down. This medicine works much faster than the older stuff, which took around 45 minutes for the cat to fully go down. Josiah told me not to watch her so that she doesn’t fight the drugs. It there’s lots of people and lots going on then she’s going to focus on us and fight falling asleep. The vet poked her a few times with a stick to make sure she was asleep before opening the cage and removing her. They put her in a net and carried her up to the back of the ranger. It was a lot harder to watch than I thought it would be. It’s kinda scary seeing this beautiful creature full of life and spirit so limp and helpless. They put a device in her mouth that monitors her oxygen levels, heart rate, and I think temperature to make sure she’s ok. Same as the thing they put on people’s fingers. Tiki has these mysterious red spots on her belly that didn’t go away after being treated with medicine. The vet is doing a biopsy today. A biopsy takes a sample of cells from a certain area and then they test those cells for abnormalities. They’re checking for skin cancer. If it’s not skin cancer then they’re not sure what it could be. The vet’s assistant shaved all the hair around the spots and then used disinfectant creams and sprays all over the area. I held the dart for awhile. I picked up a few pieces of the hair to keep. Mountain lion fur is so so soft! Tiki’s eyes are open but she can’t see out of them. The biopsy tool is a small tube with a circular knife in it that he drives into the affected area to pull out tissue samples. The samples will be sent to Mizzou (University of Missouri), and we should have the results by around Tuesday. I have now completely and officially eliminated a career as a vet. I couldn’t do that. It was hard enough watching him tranq her and then do the biopsy. After he took the tissues, he did one stitch on each spot. If she pulls them out or picks at them it's not a big deal. They also took blood samples and did a leukemia test. It came back negative so then we could give her the leukemia vaccine. They gave her some other shots and vaccinations she needed. I got to pet her. She's super soft. I touched her paws and face. They had me feel her whiskers and tooth. Even her tail is soft. We tried to paw print her but it didn't really work. We covered her paw with paint and then pressed it to card stock. We tried 6 times with two paws and it turned out as a blob each time. Keith brought over a very lucky tour group to see Tiki and touch her. The vet and Josiah carried her back to her bedroom in the net and locked the door between the bedroom and rest of the enclosure so she could wake up in a smaller area first. Then they reversed her and got out. You can wait for the drugs to wear off or inject the cat with a reverse drug that wakes it up. You always try to use as little as possible of the paralyzing drug because when you reverse them if the paralyzing drug hasn't worn off, then they can wake up and not be able to move their body which would be really scary. Unfortunately you can't reverse the paralyzing drug. It took about two minutes for her to wake up. Someone will watch her constantly for the rest of the day. I took the first shift and sat there in front of her habitat in a chair for over two hours and just watched her. When I had to run to the bathroom someone watched her until I came back. It was pretty cold outside today. At first she was a little freaked out and immediately tried to get up and walk around. She was super wobbly and a little confused. She would take a step or two then stumble, or pause for a really long time between steps. Poor baby. But she never threw up as far as I could tell which was really good! They said it was normal for cats to throw up after being sedated. She kept trying to go into her igloo house. A few times she moved to the corner of the pen but wasn’t coordinated enough to turn around so sort of half hopped onto the igloo to turn herself around. She’s not allowed water for a few hours, and if she does well with a little water she can have more later, then eventually food. We also vaccinated all five lions today. But they used the blow dart gun on them and just shot them from outside. Then you wait for the dart to fall out and collect it so they can’t get hurt on it. I helped with all the vitamins and took care of the dogs and cats and some other usual cleaning or chores. For the vitamins I was in the truck doing them while they drove to different cats. Looking out of the van window I got to see them feeding some of the cats. They have a small trough and push meat to the cat with a ladle spoon. I was left in the food room to wash all the dishes because someone was staying an extra hour to watch Tiki after giving her food. She did really well at recovering from being sedated. It’s dangerous to sedate a cat because things can always go wrong, or the cat could be allergic to medicine and many other things. If it’s not necessary then we don’t like to do it. Today was long but really neat.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Day 15
9:20 to 6:20
Today was rainy and drizzly and wet all day. I got to go on a feeding tour today!!! This one had a bunch of You Feed tour people. It seems every time I get to go on a tour the weather is really crappy. It was really cool. We have this big long trough that we stick through the fences, and then the person pushes a piece of meat down it to the cat with a long stick. We're building Lenny an extension to his cage that will go through the wall to the visitor center so he can interact with people if he wants. I moved all the concessions off the table and out of the way. Josiah and I moved the drinks coolers and the table and rug, then set it up in the next location, and I restocked all the sodas. After lunch Josiah had me wash out cat poop buckets. Not the most exciting thing ever. The tap he sent me to wouldn't turn on and we didn't know why, so instead he gave me a big bucket and sent me to get water in it from a tap a ways away and haul it back. I only needed to go for two trips to get enough water for the whole thing though. I rinsed all the buckets first and scrubbed them, then scrubbed them with bleach water and rinsed them all a few times. Natalie came down with the food not long after I was done so I went to do vitamins. Instead of the fish oil we had pills that only about half the cats get, but it only took me 40 minutes today! Even though it was a little less to put in, I was still proud. We drove the Step Van down to the South girls and I got to see them for the first time! Princess and Precious are white tiger sisters and Stripey's an orange tiger. They all came from the same place though. I walked back to the office and got to say hi to all the other cats. After doing the domestics and Lenny I walked up to the food room and started washing some things. Judy called me down to sweep up some dog hair for her. The Pyranees are getting summer haircuts so there was tons of white fluffy hair everywhere in the garage. Then I walked back up to the food room and finished washing a few things that were left (Beth got all the buckets while I was gone). I cleaned the hot box and the scale and started on the walk-in floor. Then I started preparing Duke's food for his 6 PM meal. I'm both nervous and a little excited for tomorrow. Tiki has mysterious red spots on her belly that won't go away and the medicine hasn't worked so the vet's coming tomorrow. We're going to sedate her. Which is really dangerous and hard on the cat. Tiki is a mountain lion we got last fall.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Day 14
9:20 to 6:20
Today was a fast day so it was just Lauran and I. I emptied all the trashcans then swept and mopped the office. I opened around Lenny's cage and cleaned around and under it, as well as moving the dog kennel to get under it. Lauran and I brushed some of Judy's dogs. We brushed Tank, one of the Great Pyranees and then Luna and Aspen, the huskies. Lauran took me up the food room and I worked on Duke while she made food for the cats who will eat today. On fast days some cats will eat because they have medication, others will get food if they left a lot the day before, or haven't been eating much all week. Blackie hasn't eaten all of his food the past two days, and Kora left 4 pounds yesterday so he's getting a snack. Tiki and Sierra had medicine. I sorted my buckets by weight, then we went down for lunch. After lunch I did a few last touches to the bathrooms and cleaned the cat's bathroom by moving everything and sweeping and mopping and spraying down the counters. I swept the gift shop and back room. We had to go help Keith and Judy load Tank into the car by lifting him up into the back. I went back to the food room and helped with Duke's food, then worked on my list of things to wash. I finished washing and scrubbing the walls, and washing all the buckets and pans. Lauran came back up for me because Abbie is coming with stuff from the Sam's trip for us to unload and put away. I put lots of the new drinks into the coolers in the gift shop. We were running really low on stock. I picked up poop in the office dog pen and then swept all their straw back into the corner. Lauran and I went up to do Duke's last meal. I managed to get a lot of the food room cleaning on my list done.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Day 13
9:10 to 6:45
Josiah and I dumped these baskets full of old dirty straw down in the pile off the trails. I filled one of the empty ones with leaves from a corner with a tap and hose that they needed cleared. It took several trips of dumping the basket over the hill behind Tiki. I helped Natalie with food. First I arranged the buckets by weight doing the big kids first. The chicken wasn't thawed so it took a lot longer because we had to wait around for it at the end. The walk-in is this square room the size of a queen bed that's a little colder than a refrigerator. It has a sealable door and when you go in the door closes behind you. It doesn't latch, there's a small sliver you can see outside through. But still, it is the most terrifying feeling ever. I know it won't latch behind me and that if it did there's a way to open it from the inside, but it scares me every time. Then the walk-in is all dark and it's hard to see. I cleaned the bathrooms and straightened the merchandise. I picked up poop in the office dog yard and refilled the bowl of cat food for the "cat" that lives near the food room. We took the van up to the food room again today. Now that it's warmer out and the snow's gone they can drive it around to do food. While Natalie was doing Duke, I started on the vitamins and got through 6 buckets. I finished the vitamins for all the buckets in about 50 minutes today! I was stoked and proud. I cleaned the bathrooms thoroughly and started to clean the cat bathroom. At lunch I saw the list of tasks for me tomorrow and the cat bathroom was on it. Then I went up to the food room to wash things. I didn't have all the buckets and pans yet, but after I finished all the ones I had, I started cleaning the walls, trash can, sink, tables, dirty water buckets, and hot box. And sweeping the floor. All those are on my list for tomorrow. When they showed up with the rest of the buckets and things it was after 6 so I really didn't have much time and didn't finish.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Day 12, Pi Day!
9:20 to 6:30
Let's just assume that I take care of the domestic dogs and cats in the morning and evening everyday. And that most days I will cut up fruit for Lenny. I attempted to wipe out the popcorn machine but I only made it look worse. I wiped all the counters and surfaces to get rid of dust. Josiah took me with him in the Pinzgauer and we drove the Nature Expedition trails to make sure the Pinzgauer could make it up all the hills and through the mud. Then we filled it with gas. When we came back was Bruiser was gone. His family came home from vacation and picked him up. I worked on tidying the gift shop and sweeping. I walked up the road to the food room and helped Natalie finish the food. Josiah drove the Step Van up and we loaded all the buckets and pans/troughs/spoons and I started on the vitamins. There's a basic order they do the vitamins in so that they can start feeding certain cats first. First I do all the pan kids (cats who eat out of a pan instead of hand feeding). Then I do the South girls, who are also pan kids. These three came from Branson's magic show. Next I do Tina, then the Siblings (Vincent, Paul, Max, and Dee). After the siblings I usually do the 5 lions, then work my way from closest to farthest away. At lunch I talked with Josiah about LINK project ideas and we agreed on what I'll do. Then I cleaned a small insect cage and moved the crickets into it to keep them. The crickets are for the terrarium. I went to clean buckets of course. I finished before they'd brought the rest of them up, so I asked if I could start cutting up food for Duke while I waited. He's on normal schedule right now so he gets 2 or 3 pounds alternating every 2 hours. I was about half way done when Josiah got there. Whatever isn't washed when we leave goes into the walk-in overnight.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Day 11
9:20 to 6:05
Josiah wasn't coming in until later so he left me a list of things to do. The dogs left a huge mess in their pen today. I cleaned the bathrooms and wiped the mirrors with windex. I started to work on cleaning the fridge and freezer when Natalie came to take me up to help with food. Nothing was washed last night. To wash the buckets first you fill one with plain water an swish it around then pour it into the next bucket and the next, and so on. Then you fill a bucket with soap and water and scrub the inside and outside of the bucket then pour the soap water into the next bucket and scrub it. Then you rinse each one separately and leave it out to dry. For food first it gets cut up into small-medium sized pieces, then put in buckets for each cat. The buckets are weighed and have to match the amount of food that cat is supposed to be fed. Then it's covered with plastic and put in a hotbox to heat up. The buckets are taken to the van where vitamins are added, then everyone else takes them to the cats. After cutting up the meat and washing some tools and other things we went down for lunch. I did all the vitamins. Today was the powders, and pills for some of the cats. I was sent up to the food room to wash all the buckets and tools again. It started to rain around mid afternoon and was pouring by the time we left.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Day 10
9:25 to 6:30
I took care of the domestic cats and dogs and cut up fruit for Lenny as usual. I cleaned a coffee pot today. Josiah had me rake a ton of leaves into piles and use these hand scoop things to carry the leaves and dump them out of the way. I saw Bambi for the first time! She's a yellow leopard. Bambi was super cute and it's amazing how well she blended into the ground - how all the cats do! I came back with another trip of leaves and was wondering where she'd gone and looking around the enclosure and then I realized she was right next to the fence crouched low watching me. For a while with each trip I made, she moved to a new place and we played "hide and seek." She rolled around on her back for a bit and it was the cutest thing ever. People are coming to the office later so I thoroughly swept and mopped. Then I swept the gift shop and cleaned all the glass doors. When I was in the backyard moving debris people were asking me questions and it was really cool to get to answer them and interact with the public. I already know so much about all the cats and the sanctuary! We're running super behind today because we've been really busy with tours so food wasn't done by 4 yet (usually we're feeding at 4) so I did vitamins up at the food room today so Beth could finish cutting the meat and preparing buckets. That's how far behind we were. A lot of the buckets were still somewhat frozen but we had to just take them down. I closed the house and swept the back room and finished cleaning up the backyard. Today was tiring.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Day 9
6:25 to 6:15
Today we're doing something different. It's humane day for the state of Missouri so we're driving to the capital, Jefferson City. Keith and Judy (the founders) and Josiah (my mentor) and Abbie (the boss) picked me up around 6:25. It's about a three hour drive. We're in the giant Sanctuary RV that's painted with a big picture of a cat and National Tiger Sanctuary. Before we got there we tossed calendars and brochures and a few mugs into bags to bring with us. We went to the Capital Building! We introduced ourselves to many people and told them all about who we are and what we do. It was really exciting to always be introduced as the Intern from Colorado. There are three bills we're interested in. The first is a bill that we want voted down. Currently when someone abuses an animal they have to provide care and cover expenses on the animal until things are worked out, but this bill would make all shelters and rescues responsible for these expenses, meaning that because of the financial burden many places won't take in the animal, and it will be left in the hands of the abuser. This is why we want people to vote no on it. The other two bills we want passed. One makes a connection between animal violence, and violence against people. There are studies that show someone who abuses an animal has a much higher chance of abusing people. This bill would require animal abusers to submit to psychological evaluation following an incident of abuse. The last bill is a bill that would provide people adopting a dog or cat in the state of Missouri $300 if they keep the pet longer than a year. The money would come from tax dollars and is intended to act as motivation for rescue adoptions and not purchases from breeders. I found out that Missouri is the Puppy-mill state, which is really sad. We joined with another woman from the same district as us (District 7) and went to find our representatives. We gave them summaries of the bills we were interested in and explained what they should vote for. Then we "bribed" them with free calendars (which are like $15 to buy) and lots of brochures for the Sanctuary. It was a lot of walking between floors and being very polite and professional to a lot of people. The building was beautiful with lots of art and intricate designs on the walls and all the railings and ceilings. We sat in for a few minutes on a legislative session. The first bill they were talking about had something to do with prescription drugs and painkillers being a gateway to heroin. It was voted yes. All the bills we saw had only yeses. We wandered around their museum exhibits on the ground floor. It was pretty cool, and they had stuff on the history of Missouri. Then we sat in on a committee meeting for a few bills. The representatives really had no idea what they were vying for, so it was good someone was there to testify and explain the bill and the goals of it. It was such a cool experience to learn about this and go with them to talk to people about these things. I'm so glad they brought me with them!
Monday, March 9, 2015
Day 8
9:10 to 6:10
The Sanctuary is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, so today it was just me and Lauran. Today was also a fast day, which the cats get once a week. During fast days we don't feed them and we try to leave them alone as much as possible so they have a day to just be cats. My mentor left a list of things for me to do. I took care of the domestic dogs and cats and Lenny and cleaned the bathrooms. Then I went up to the food room to wash the rest of last night's dishes. A few of the special cats do get fed today. One is Tiki, who needs medication everyday, so they have to feed her. The other is Duke. If Duke is doing well with eating food for a few days before the fast day than he can fast too, but he hasn't been eating a lot lately so he gets fed today. Duke was kept at a turkey farm, and to feed him the owners would just toss the dead turkeys into his cage, and he'd have to eat them feathers and all or starve. He developed digestive problems where he can't keep food down and continually throws it back up, but will try to eat it again. When he first came here he couldn't keep food down for more than a few minutes, but he's doing much better. He's getting fed an all beef diet, and his meat needs to be diced into very small pieces (nickel sized). Today he is being fed one pound of meat every hour. Lauran had a million things to do today that she didn't have time for when she had to come back up every half hour to cut us his meat and feed him, so I learned how to cut up Duke's meat for him. This way I have it ready for her and she just has to give it to him and weigh what's left. He did pretty well today, and what was left for almost every meal didn't weigh anything! I washed and scrubbed the walls of the food room and cleaned the hot box and walk-in. Then I went down to the office and cleaned the fridge, then swept the gift shop, bathrooms, and office. It was kinda nice and peaceful without a million people here.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Day 7
9:10 to 7:15
Today was pretty busy with tours and stuff. After taking care of domestic dogs and cats, I used a pitchfork and big basket to clean up all the straw in the office dogs little pen. Then I brought up fresh straw from the storage shed full of straw. All the cats have bedrooms filled with straw, and it's replaced regularly. I worked on updating the food log on the computer for a few hours. Everyday they keep track of how much each cat was fed, and how much food that cat ate. All the data needs to be entered into the spreadsheet, and they're still only half way through 2014. After lunch I got to go on a Nature Expedition tour. You spend about an hour and a half riding around in a German Pinzgauer and learn about the ecology and history of the Ozarks, and the ecosystem around the sanctuary. We saw an armadillo!! I've never seen a real one before so that was super cool! It runs around on the ground with it's nose in the dirt to suck up any insects it finds. At the end we stopped by the pride of lions and I learned some new information about them. I helped my mentor load all the buckets into the ranger and take them down to the van to put vitamins in. I cut up fruit for Lenny and gave the dogs and cats dinner. It was a long day, but pretty fun!
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Day 6
9:05 to 6:00
More of the same today. I washed all the buckets and tools, twice. But I got to weigh the buckets and put the meat in for each cat! I haven't gotten to do that yet. Each cat eats a different amount and some like ground meat, others don't. If they don't, then they get either whole chicken legs, or chicken legs cut into three pieces. Some cats can take big pieces like a chicken leg or even a whole chicken, and others can't. The lions eat between 5-8 pounds of meat a day. The tigers typically eat between 6-13 pounds of meat. The small cats like the leopards and mountain lions eat less than 5 pounds. After lunch I learned how to load all the food buckets into the off road ranger and stack them so they don't crush the bottom cat's meat. I did all the vitamins for 26 cats by myself in about an hour. I was pretty proud of that. My mentor had to come up with something for me to do, so I went up to the food room and cleaned it by spraying a hose all over, and I scrubbed the floor of the walk-in freezer (which was really gross and covered with old meat slime), and I swept the patio in front. It was a busy day but I feel like I got a lot done, and that it was very productive.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Day 5
9:25 to 6:05
We have an extra little dog in the office for the next few days. His name's Bruiser and he's Miracle, one of the little dog's, son, and Oppie, the other little dog's, brother. It's a little crazy with all them now. I went up to prepare food again. Today was 3/4 chicken and 1/4 pork. I learned how to pop out of place the joints on a chicken leg so you can cut it into smaller pieces… That was fun… I cleaned all the domestic dog runs, the ones below the house for the big dogs. There's the five Great Pyrenees and then the two Huskies. Then the founders also have a few smaller dogs who stay inside most of the day. I discovered that Midnight, the black leopard, has an elevated walkway above the path that she can go sit on. It puts her looking over the people on the path. She likes that. I did vitamins again, mostly on my own. And I washed more buckets. This internship can be really trying for me, especially with picking up mushy dog poop, or handling bloody, juicy, raw meat (remember vegan), but despite all that, at the end of the day there's no place I'd rather be. I leave everyday with a smile on my face because I know I have the coolest internship even with all the hard parts.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Day 4
9:30 to 6:15
Took care of the domestic dogs and cats. Then I helped prepare food for the big cats. Today's ratio is 3/4 chicken and 1/4 beef. Each day the cats eat about 250 pounds of meat (30 cats). Then I swept and mopped the office and visitor's center. I added the daily vitamins to the cats food buckets, which was the two powders and fish oil for today. Fish oil helps make their coats pretty and their joints healthy. I cut up fruit for Lenny the lemur's dinner. Lenny's pretty cool, he can make a lot of different noises.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Day 3
9:30 to 6:15
I got a ride in from a coworker for the first time today. I went up to help with the cats food. I washed and cleaned all the food buckets, then learned how to prepare the meat. I had to cut up dozens of packages of raw pork into chunks the cats could eat. Many of the cats are picky eaters, and only like bone in, or boneless. Some of the cats have problems with eating and can only have one kind of meat, or have to have all the meat cut up in small chunks. Then we covered each cat's bucket with plastic wrap and stuck it in a heater fridge to finish thawing for dinner. Later I helped put vitamins in the buckets. Which is basically using your fingers to dig holes in the meat (chicken wings work best) and making it big enough to fit in small scoops of vitamin powder, or pills.
It was a very interesting experience. But this is still the coolest internship ever!
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Day 2
9:30 to 6:30
Still no luggage, so last night we went and bought me work clothes and boots from Walmart to have something. Took care of the domestic dogs and cats. Then I went to shovel snow off the paths and walkways. And shovel snow. And shovel more snow. It wasn’t super cold though so that was nice. It was so neat being so close to all the big cats! They would come and sit right by the fence and watch me shoveling, 4 feet away. The tigers talked to me and made noises but the lions just sate quietly and perfectly still watching me. It was so cool! Before leaving in the evening I cut up fruit for Lenny the lemur’s dinner.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Day 1!
9:45 to 6:15
The weather was pretty bad - blizzarding all day and very cold out. My luggage hasn’t arrived yet so I was in jeans and Vans and a not very good jacket... definitely not the right clothes for the weather. I met the staff at the National Tiger Sanctuary for the first time. They sent my dad and I on one of their normal public tours to see the place a little and meet some cats. I already knew a lot about each of the cats we met because I’ve read all the bios on their website. My mentor taught me about how the gift shop works and how to turn on their informational videos. I helped take care of the domestic dogs and cats. Then I went on a second tour with a different staff member and learned some new things about the cats. At the end of the day I helped clean and wash all the cats’ food buckets. So blood and leftover meat, washed down a big drain.