A lot of things have
happened since the last time I wrote. I went to the Wisconsin state fair, saw a
concert at the fair, dogsat some malamutes, went to the Milwaukee County
Zoo, played with some animals at work,
went on my first raccoon release, watched some tennis, and of course played
tennis. So lets start with dogsitting. Linda had a couple of friends who were
going to an event and didn't want to leave their dogs at home alone for the
night. I was given first dibs on the job so I took it at their beautiful
cottage with a massive garden and lots of animals. I got some free dinner after
work, compensated for my time, and got to hang out with some HUGE dogs while I
watched the Olympics. However, getting in the house was no cake walk. When I
got their it was raining, the key was supposed to be in the mailbox but I
couldn't find it so I walked around looking for other solutions until the owner
called me back. It turned out that the envelope that I thought was mail in the
mailbox actually had the key in it. The envelope was addressed to someone else
and even had postage, I didn't want to snoop in their mail so I had left it
alone, it never occurred to me to look inside of it, duhhhh! Once I found the
key I couldn't get it to work on the lock. There were four doors leading into
the house so I tried all of them with the key but nothing worked. I called the
homeowners a second time and even with her help I couldn't get the key to work,
mind you it was still raining but at least I had an umbrella. So I was
instructed to go through a gate in the back and then through an unlocked door
in the yard. Forty minutes or so later I finally made it into the house with
the two dogs patiently awaiting their food. They definitely wouldn't make good
guard dogs because they saw me trying to open the door numerous times and
didn't even bark once, then when I finally made it in they came up to greet me.
I made it into the house and things went smoothly after that until it came time
to close the chicken coop. I had to call Linda (she had been there before) to
even find the coop, I thought for sure I wouldn’t find it before dark and that
the raccoons were going to eat all their chickens and then they were going to
think all people from Texas were this bad. Took me a while but with Linda's
help I found it eventually.
Miles, the older male malamute.
Winter, Miles' younger sister.
The highly
anticipated state fair has finally arrived!!!! The Wisconsin State Fair was
amazing, much more variety than Summerfest! Lots of things to see, food to eat,
and things to do. I went with Linda to take Hannah (dog) to a dog diving
competition. You know, where the dogs jump into the pool to see how far they
can jump. This was Hannah's first year trying and she didn't exactly know what
to do, she liked to go down the ramp into the pool rather than jump into it. We
had fun watching her try anyway, needless to say she didn't place.
Hannah awaiting her turn to jump at the fair.
The results of the dog jumping competition. Look at number 7, that is our girl haha.
After that we hung
out with Linda's friend and his mom at the fair for a little while. I tried a
couple of foods on a stick, caught a little bit of the shark encounter program,
shopped at the marketplace, saw some of the livestock and show animals, and walked
through the massive exposition center. The exposition center had products that
were the "as seen on tv" type products, local dairy and meats to buy,
lots of food and samples, etc. One thing I should mention here is that the
state fair is famous for their crème puffs, there was a whole building
dedicated to making and selling crème puffs. Here are some pictures that
captured my experiences at the fair.
Donkeys!
Chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick + sprinkles.
I thought this was a pretty cow.
Chocolate covered bacon on a stick.
World famous creme puff, set a world record for the largest creme puff last year.
Creme puff, that is how big they were!
Alpacas.
Not sure what kind of cattle they were but they looked interesting so I took a picture.
Then two nights
after that fun packed day at the fair with Hannah I went back at night for a
Christian music concert with Chris Tomlin. I went by myself, but once the
concert started I didn't feel like I was alone. We stood the whole time and had
a giant Christian karaoke night. In Chris's words, he wasn't there to
"perform", everyone was singing off key (including me) and just
having a great time.
At work, one of the
staff members took Maize, our resident/educational corn snake, out to play one
evening. I got to hold her, she was silky smooth believe it or not.
This was just a
picture I snapped of a baby turkey we are caring for.
I finally got to
meet up with one of my cousins Melissa this week. We had a short but nice
dinner at Chili's. Aiming to do something again soon when we have more time.
Last weekend I went
to watch Linda play tennis during her playoff tournament. She played doubles
with a friend on her team, they won their match but as a team they didn't do
well. Since they scored based on how the team did, Linda's team didn't advance
to the next stage of playoffs. I think she had a good season though. I had
never seen her play on one of her leagues so it was fun to watch even if I did
get sunburned haha.
This week I went on
my first raccoon release. The raccoons were not ones we had raised, but were
raccoons that were raised by a licensed rehabilitator at their home. One of the
staff members at the center offered for us to release them at someone's property.
I was one of two people driving. We had mapquest, but both of us drivers were
from out of state, not a good idea. Guess what happened. Yep, I was the leader
with a person navigating according to our directions and I got us lost. We had
to call the property owner to find his house. When we got their he released
them into a chicken coop type thing with an opening to a jungle gym type area
outside. This was what we call a soft release where the animals are still
offered food and shelter for a week or two until they are let go completely
into the wild. So it was like baby steps
into the real world. I let the other driver lead us home and we got there in no
time. I told them not to let me lead again.
Yesterday Linda and
I went to the Milwaukee Zoo. Heaven? I think so, but also a little torturous
listening to kids say biologically incorrect things about the animals and such.
Oh the animal biologist in me. The zoo was large, had a variety of animals but
probably not anything you wouldn't see at another well known zoo except for an
actual bald eagle in their birds of prey show. We spent probably about 5-6
hours there walking around to all the exhibits. Our feet hurt at the end of the
day, but it was nothing some custard and a good night's sleep couldn't fix :)
Norbert, the bald eagle.
Brown bear looking for a place to nap.
Colobus monkey.
A Eurasian Owl.
Flamingos
Gaboon Viper.
Ibises, different than the ones in the south.
Newly welcomed jaguar.
A young male lion, you can see his mane coming in.
Oh wise gorilla.
Some pretty cool primates.
One of the 3 orangutans.
Measuring my wingspan compared to some birds.
The crow named Cherry that collects donations after the show.
I just had to take a picture of the red tailed hawk, most common raptor in North America.
Tortoise!!
The stoic lion.
There were two girrafes but this one was paler in color and I think prettier for it.
Linda feeding the goats.
Feeding goats, although in my opinion they didn't need to be fed anymore.
One of the many magnificent peacocks that roam the zoo grounds.
3 of the 4 grizzly bears, the one in front is a mama bear.
Poison dart frogs
A prairie dog, they were very active when we were there.
A sleeping tiger, don't wake it!
Today I am going to
attempt to canoe with one of my fellow interns Breanne, she is from New Mexico.
She is house sitting for a volunteer at the center and she was told friends
were welcome to come over. Last night I got a tour of the house and then we went
to dinner. The house is spectacular: coy pond inside the house, three stories
plus an apartment above the garage, house is mainly stone, beautiful garden out
back with lake access, a parrot, 3 cats, 2 dogs, lots of sculptures and art,
and a spiral staircase in a tower in the
center of the house. Gorgeous!! She met the right person at the right time to
get this house sitting gig, I think she has been there for 3 or 4 days and
today is her last day.
As you can tell I
have been busy busy. Linda will be gone camping next weekend so I might hang
out with the relatives at the city's art festival. One more important message
before I sign off, see below:
I have been talking
to the people in Florida about the other internship for wildlife
rehabilitation. It turns out they will be looking for more interns around the
time I leave my current internship. I have a phone interview scheduled for
Friday morning! This is the internship that I have a pretty good chance of
getting due to some reference letters, experience, etc. The lady I volunteered
for at the aquarium in Texas actually did this internship too so you do the
math. Wish me luck!! I am very excited about my prospects :)))))
