Day: 1

Today was my first day at the sanctuary!! I am SO excited to share it with you! However I guess we aren’t supposed to put pictures of the animals on facebook so this will be the only place where the pictures will be available (haha they’ll never know I posted them).

In my first 5 minutes working at the sanctuary we lost three birds and we tagged three birds! It was really exciting to actually be working with the animals. To tag the animals Amy and I had to weigh them, put a small zip-tie on their foot, and record the weight and band color.

Right off the bat, I had to deal with the obstacle of losing an animal. It was sort of relieving to get it out of the way. It’s terrible to lose animals but it happens.

My next task (after trying to remember everyone’s names) was to tend to the baby room. When a baby animal comes in, it is placed in this room (along with a few other non-baby animals). I had to clean their cages and feed them. In this room I worked with baby possum, a large number of different baby birds, ducklings, baby owls, and a ferret.

Feeding the birds was fun. They would chirp and chirp and chirp until you fed them. Once they were full it was like their body automatically shut down and they just fell right to sleep. It was lights out.





And the possum would all congregate in a little corner. There was like 10 of them in the cage too! They would sleep together and when we put the food bowls in they would grab a piece and go back to their huddle in the corner. It was adorable. And when we took them out to clean the cage, these little guys would hiss and show their teeth and act like they were tough stuff. When in reality they were no bigger than 3 to 5 inches.





I also got to hold a baby bobcat which was incredible! I love cats and holding that little guy was so much fun.



After the baby room I had to go clean the big bird flight area. It’s a huge pen with different birds of prey like Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Red-tailed Hawks, and a Crested Caracara. The birds just hung out while we hosed down the area. They would fly over and get kind of close because they were curious little buggers. There was one turkey vulture that liked to play with the handle of my bucket (we had the buckets to pick up the parts of chicks and mice that the birds didn’t eat). He would play with the handle and the look up & stare at me when I threw something in there. Funny little shit.


The flight area.


One of the Red-tailed Hawks

After the flight area, I explored the bird rehab area which is where birds are kept who are injured and cannot live on their own. There were some pretty bad ass birds in there.


This is Luna. She would peek through the boards and bark like a dog.


Luna the Great Horned Owl


Perri the European Eagle Owl


Amanda the Crested Caracara


Iffy the Golden Eagle


Red-tailed Hawk


CPA the Barn Owl


Golden Eagle

I also got to go into the snake house and help Stefanie (one of the staff) feed the snakes. She really taught me a lot about the different snakes in the house. Stef fed one of the snakes right in from of a group of kids, turns to me and says, “Uh oh… I’m going to get in trouble for this”. Haha





During the day I did another round of feeding the babies, prepared a nice bucket full of different fruits and veggies for the deer, and I also helped get new bracelets for one of the education owls, Sable.

It was a very tiring and fulfilling day. I had an incredible time. I am doing what I love and I can’t wait to go back bright and early tomorrow morning!

After I got home I jumped in the pool for a little relaxing with Aunt Nikki and mom. It was sooooo amazing. But then my Aunt thought it would be cool to go on a 08923478237200523409523 mile long walk. But guess what! We only walked half of what she normally walks. Haha (Love you Aunt Nikki!) I am looking forward to our walks with the right shoes. :)

Now I’m going watch the rest of The Book of Eli (can anyone say a movie that is exactly like Fallout 3?) with the rest of the family and hit the sheets. I’m pooped.

Night!

Day: 0

TOMORROW I START!! Eek!! I’m so excited!

Another lazy day until we went fishing. I didn’t catch anything but my brother got a catfish that I took off the line. It was good shit.


Annnnnd I can’t sleep! So I’m going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs until I drift into sleep.


Night!

Day: -1

It was a pretty lazy day. We played with the pups, hung around the pool, and caught some rays. It’s crazy hot in Florida and I hate to say it but I kinda miss the Midwest weather.

Mom and I also went to visit Aunt Nikki at her BBQ joint. They had some good food!! And amazing banana pudding (which I could totally go for some now, bring me some home Aunt Nikki!! Haha). And they had a little baby cooter turtle! He was SO adorable. I have a thing for little baby turtles.

We’re almost to Day 1! Yay!

Night :)

The Real Day: -2

Day: The real -2
So I messed up on my numbering of the days before I start the internship. So what if I can’t count…

Today was a late start day for both me & my brother. My Aunt and I failed again to watch New Moon the night before. But today was a very lazy day. We had a cook out with our family, my Aunt and Uncle, and their best friend and his family. The food was delicious!

But early in the day, I took my sister out to play with the puppies my Aunt and Uncle have. She was running around with them and then stopped in one spot and was playing with the puppy named Rooster. All of the sudden she starts screaming and crying. I thought the puppy was just scratching her but when I got over there I saw she had stopped on a fire ant hill. They had climbed up her leg and were stinging her all over. I snatched her up and ran down to the pond. I dunked her legs in and started wiping off the ants as they started stinging me. I rushed her to my Aunt who brought her inside. The poor guy was covered in little bumps from them. I didn’t get stung as much as she did and they hurt like a b****! I could only imagine how it was for her. We had never encountered ants like this in Illinois.


Fire Ants


This is what they do - They sting you. It itches and burns. Then it turns into something like a white pustule.



After dinner Dad, Cory, Uncle Dusty, and I went fishing at one of his buddies ponds. My Dad was using one of new fangled contraptions on his pole and didn’t catch a thing. I threw a hot dog on my hook and had a fish literally jump onto my line. The thing jumped out of the water for my hot dog. I kept telling him to just use a hot dog…

We’re all exhausted so I’m heading to bed. And I know the entries aren’t extremely exciting but once I start my internship they will be so bear with me for now.

Night

Day: -2

Saturday. It’s the weekend before I start my internship. I have some time to spend with the family today. Everyone is super tired from the 24 hour drive the day before and despite mine & my Aunt Nikki’s best attempt to watch New Moon, we fell asleep early Friday night and somehow I got up at the crack of dawn. We went out to
breakfast at Pogey’s and then we headed down to Jupiter.

I wanted to walk through the Sanctuary before I started there and I was amazed. It is immersed in the swamp that makes up Florida. There is so much natural landscape that the animal enclosures are made around. It’s extremely beautiful. I discovered that they have 4 Florida Panthers and 3 Bobcats. They also have a ton of different birds. Different birds of prey, song birds, ducks, etc. There is a small pond where you can get turtle food and drop it down to the thirty or more aquatic turtles that are waiting hungrily below. They also have a pretty bad ass white raccoon and some other normal backyard animals. And they have a bunch of American alligators and crocodiles. I can’t possibly name all of the animals they have but they’re really cool. They do shows with the animals and have grade school volunteers. The best part for visitors – it’s free. This place runs on donations and other benefits. You can also donate online at www.buschwildlife.com . Don’t forget to find them on facebook (Busch Wildlife Sanctuary)! I have a couple pictures of the place but we weren’t there long.





I will be starting on Wednesday instead of Monday. I’m taking Monday and Tuesday to spend with my family since they’ll be here. My Uncle Dusty is also going to take me to see “The Tiger Lady”. This woman has a variety of different big cats like tigers, lions, and jaguars. My uncle and his buddies usually go out and hunt feral hogs (since they’re such a nuisance here) and, since nothing goes to waste while hunting, they’ll take the dead hogs to the tiger lady who will then feed it to the cats. I am incredibly excited to go see her! I’ll get to see the cats up close (not too close of course!) and she even has a baby tiger I’ll be able to tend to. This. Is. My. Dream. Job. Big cats are what I’ve always wanted to work with.

So later today we went to a beach (I can’t remember the name). And despite my phobia of swimming with fish, I went pretty far into the water. This was my first time ever seeing, or being in, the ocean. Let’s just say I like being able to see my feet at all times, I don’t mind the baby fish that swim by every now and then, and I prefer the taste of lake water to salt water (I wasn’t drinking it but it never fails to get some in your mouth).

Now we’re all hanging around just winding down. It’s been a pretty intense day and we’re all exhausted. I’m headed to bed.

Night.

Cubs Gnome Sighting #4

Cubs Gnome finally makes it to Florida!! AND THERE'S PALM TREES!

Cubs Gnome Sighting #3

He loves those Georgia peaches!!