Empty Apartments

Moving is dumb. I suppose having the new apartment not be move-in ready until mid-September as opposed to two weeks ago, and not knowing exactly where any of our stuff is, is all part of the adventure.

In July all of our stuff got packed up into this storage unit, that was due to be moved in August from California to Washington. It's mid-August, and we still don't have our stuff. Richard tried calling the company almost everyday this week and we finally got a call back this morning, with an update. Our stuff is in LA, and is supposed to arrive sometime between Wednesday and Friday of next week. SO, Richard is living in a temporary apartment... which is unfinished (stupid cabinets), and is basically empty. I can sum up our current furniture in two words: bar stool. Yeah. Just one.

At least there is a fridge!

Which is also empty. Because all our cookware is in storage. In LA. With the rest of our stuff.

On the bright side, having no furniture allowed me to have a really nice meditation session in one of the empty rooms!


On a slightly less exciting note, my internship is coming to an end in just a few weeks (I know I keep mentioning this). I am nervous because I don't yet have anything lined up for afterwards, and am just sort of "winging it". I also fear the end of this internship will end this particular blog segment, as I am not sure what else to be writing about (and no one suggests anything!!!). But we shall see.

That is all I have for now, but I will leave you with this inspirational quote, because sometimes I need to remind myself of this:

image taken from the internet

Well, isn't that emusing!

I tried to post this on Friday, only to realize too late that the internet at McDonald's was not up to snuff. I worked a very long 6-day work week (about 68 hours), and am finally on a real weekend. Richard is in town for the week while we wait for our new apartment to be move-in ready, and he is working from a hotel in Roseburg so he can be close to me! What a nice boy.


As my last post was seriously lacking in photographs, I will include mostly pictures in this one. It's been a crazy few weeks, and I know I say that every week, but it's summer. It's hot, and its hard work and long days. Each day feels like a week. Time goes by so quickly that I don't even remember to go to the grocery store on my days off (so I have to go out after work when I would rather take a nap or sit on the couch and veg).

View from the Barn, affectionately known as "the intern house".

Saigon, being handsome, and lazy as ever

Scrunchface Forever (This is Ricky). <3

So, sometimes we have to wear this suit for special events..... I have heard that it is VERY hot, but fortunately haven't had to wear it yet. Don't worry, it comes with ice packs.

Sometimes we get a little crazy and cut a bunch of browse for enrichment. It's a good thing the bears LOVE wild plum browse, because its incredibly messy and a pain to clean up.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, a few of us have gone floating on the river on our days off. To reiterate, its beautiful and relaxing while being simultaneously exhilarating and exiting. I loves it.

Saigon loves his pool.

Our awesome docents recently got the cheetah/carnivore departments a new scale so we can weigh all of our animals!

Khayam (pictured) weighs 101lbs

Mchumba weights 82lbs

We also weighed the lions, and two of our bears:

Tsavo - 325lbs

Enzi - 315lbs

Serafina - 282lbs

Mtai - 317lbs

Victor (brown bear) - 789lbs

Ricky (black bear) - 652lbs (big boy!!)

Oso and Mak are ready for dinner!

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, OR

Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, OR

View from the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, Newport, OR

So, then we played tug-o-war with the lions....

...and yeah, they won.

A few years ago, W.S. offered a Lion Tug-o-War encounter with the older male lion, Tau. Last year he was relocated to another facility in Texas, when Tsavo and Enzi arrived, so the encounter ceased. The boys were too young, and even now, they don't know what to do with the rope. We tested it a few weeks ago with both the boys and the girls, and the girls took right to it! They were so curious, and it was a lot of fun.

"A llama! He's supposed to be dead!"

Actually, this is a guanaco, who came creepin' as we were cleaning bear huts.

The other day I was fortunate enough to see a handful of hummingbirds at this feeder that our docents put up outside of Lion Tower.

This is Miya! Last Friday I cross-trained with the Ungulates department and got to hang out with the giraffes and hippos (among other animals). It was fun getting to help train Miya to stand calmly in the squeeze (I got to feed her!). She stayed there for about 10 minutes, which is really good!

Oh look, a hippo! This is Padrone, he is 13 years old.

Padrone coming to check out the commotion (we were cleaning the hippo barn).

As you can see, its been a pretty crazy, but fun week! I try to post every week and it can be hard for me to do so sometimes, so I appreciate those of you who have stuck with me and been patient through my sporadic hiatuses (Hiati? Hiatus? What is the plural of hiatus?). But also, THANK YOU to anyone who is even reading this!! Feel free to comment with any questions, and I am always open to suggestions for animal related topics to write about! Thanks for stopping by!

My Life in Pictures.

Actually, that's a lie. This week, much to my readers dismay, will be picture-less. Sorry folks.


Well, clearly I have run out of things to talk about. Or, rather, run out of things I am allowed to share with you, dear blogosphere. However, I can outline some of my non-work adventures as of late:

In the last few weeks, outside of work Emily and I have taken a few trips to Eugene, and one to Newport. In Eugene, we discovered a fantastic thai food place called Ta Ra Rin (the Pad Kee Mao is SO SO good!!!), which easily trumps Hello Thai (in Winston). In fact, Hello Thai would be knocked over by Ta Ra Rin's pinky finger if it came to fisticuffs.

Moving on.

In our recent adventure to Newport, we visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where one of our friends/former intern's from Wildlife Safari now interns. We watched training sessions with the sea otters and the sea lions and I was just so impressed by what they do. We use clickers at Safari, and I know the zoo where Mtai and Serafina came from used whistles, but these trainers.... didn't use either. They used only their voices. I've seen this done with the elephants at Safari and it blows my mind. The amount of confidence that goes into those training sessions using only your voice as a bridge... sheesh. Needless to say I was captivated.

In Newport we had lunch at Local Ocean which is down on the waterfront. We enjoyed delicious crab po' boys that were so fresh they were probably caught that day (no, they were not still biting and clawing...not THAT fresh!). Crab is delicious. Enough said.

We also ventured out to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse where thousands of common murres were found along the cliffs (those are shorebirds incase you were wondering). I did take some pictures, but I forgot to load them onto my computer before coming to get internet (I'm a fool!), so you will have to wait to see those shots.

In the previous weeks, we spent our weekends floating the river. Since it's been so hot, this has been a fantastic way to cool off and relax. It is simply gorgeous and calming as you float down the river... until you get to the rapids and are thrown unceremoniously from your inner tube only to be amazed that you missed all the rocks and your party didn't float all the way down the river without you. Haha. That only happened once, but it was pretty hilarious, and I can only wish I'd seen it from Emily and Melissa's perspective... I also wish I had a waterproof camera to take pictures of the view as we float. Simply stunning. I love all that I've seen of Oregon so far. I just keeps getting prettier.

Only have a few more weeks at Wildlife Safari and I don't want it to end. I mean, sure I'd like to have income for once, but I just love the animals I've had the opportunity to work with, as well as the amazing view I get to see every day as we drive through the park.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Richard and I scored a sweet new apartment in Vancouver, WA. We were all stoked to start moving in August 3rd, when Richard gets the call that the cabinets aren't going to be finished until the 9th (that's how new it is!!). Okayyy. Fine. Can deal with that. Then today, I get the call that we can't move in until the 16th! Well, this doesn't really affect me directly, since I'm still in Winston until Sept 1st, but Richard will need a place to stay! After his rowing trip in Canada, he is going to stay at a hotel in Roseburg (near me!) until the 9th. The representative from our apartment today told me they could offer us a different apartment temporarily, free of rent until our apartment was ready to move into, or until September 1st. Unless we decide we just want to stay in this other apartment. So, since Richard is in Canada with shotty service, I can't consult him, so I went for it. A few weeks with no rent to pay? Sure! So, I hope that works out.

So that's my best update for the moment guys. Sorry to let you down with the no-pictures thing. Until next time!!!


For the next two weeks, Safari will be hosting a workshop which includes medical knockdowns on several of our animals for educational purposes. This is going to be a hectic few weeks, and I don't know what my schedule will end up being like, so I will post when I can!

Stay tuned!

How to be cool.

Last weekend came and went so quickly I hardly realized it was happening. Between the long hours and hot weather (nearly 100F for the last few weeks), I am just spent. Only a couple more weeks of my internship and I honestly don't know where the time has gone.

Since it's been so hot, I thought I'd share this un-bear-ably cute picture of one of our black bears trying to stay cool. 

She is pretty cute! She likes to sit under the hose stream as we fill the pool up. Silly bear!

Tune in next week for more adventures!

Well, this is hawkward.

I have a confession. I don't have a clever theme for this week's post. So, I have put together a series of pictures for your enjoyment.

But first, I would like to point out that in the "Anything Can Happen Tuesday" portion of last week's post, I neglected to mention that cub walks generally mean we walk both Khayam and McHumba simultaneously, which means we need a total of at least five people. Two per cat, and a third for safety. This is how I got to be a first. There were two, and I was one of them. Boom.

And now, on to the pictures!

This photo shows Tayler, Emily and I with Alice the elephant. She is a fantastic painter! We booked an elephant encounter for one of our weekends off together before Tayler left for her summer internship in Sioux Falls. You might notice the keeper standing in the yard with Alice. The regulations set forth by AZA (the Association of Zoos and Aquariums) have been changing in regards to elephant care. It used to be possible to work free contact with them! AZA is moving towards protected contact with all elephants, but hasn't been fully implemented yet. WS has three elephants, two of which (Alice and George) are still free contact. Tava, who is the instructor for the Tava's Workout World encounter, is worked only protected contact, which means always having a barrier between you and the animal.

This is little Miya. She is a two year old Reticulated (Somali) Giraffe. She is very shy and only occasionally leaves the giraffe yard to hang out with Mate (one of the other giraffes) in the drive through. Here she is seen a few feet from the gate leading to the giraffe yard. Slowly but surely she is venturing further out into the drive through! You can do it, Miya!

This is who we call "Family." No, not our family. Moon and cubs! Moonfire is the proud mother of two 8 month old boys named Donovan and Dapper. They are a pretty cute little family. The boys are getting so big! They almost look like full grown cheetahs!

A few weeks ago I went back home to Santa Barbara for a (very) short visit. I missed the sight of palm tree lined beaches..... and, let's be honest. I missed my cat. ;)

Immediately following my short weekend trip home, I came back to work for the first Roars & Snores Adventure Camp of the summer! Campers (all adults) get the chance to get up close and personal with the lions at WS. They are given a catered dinner, a short presentation about lions, get to feed the lions (put their dinner in the huts), watch them eat, and then camp out in one of the lion yards (without lions!) over night while making s'mores and listening to lions carolling. It's pretty awesome. And in the morning, we got breakfast burritos. Baller! I was having some trouble with the s'mores though... the smoke from the fire kept getting into my eyes, so when I tried to roast a double marshmallow, they caught fire and I couldn't see to blow them out, so I waved them around to try to extinguish the flames. One of the non-flaming marshmallows flew off and onto the ground. Whooooops. Enrichment!

As you can see.... Ellie is clearly feeling much better. But, no pizza for puppies! Emily and I have discovered a great pizza topping combination that may surprise some of you - pineapple, pepperoni, mushroom and olive. Now, I know what you're thinking: "What!? Mushrooms!? Tanda's eating mushrooms?!?!?!?!" Why yes, yes I am. Only cooked and only on pizza with the above toppings. YUM.

Danielle made Saigon a scratching post. OK, it's a wooden bed with old fire hose strips bolted on, but hey. He scratches up all his beds anyway, so.... Allegedly, the second day he had the bed in his yard he was carrying it around. I guess he likes it?

Emu. I don't know why, but birds are creepy. But I thought this made a nice shot.

Sika deer make the funniest little noise. "Meeeeee!". Yeah. Hearing that in a herd of 20-something... Looking around, and you just can't tell who made the noise. It's a little unnerving. In the last 4 months, Wildlife Safari has decided to implement Feed Cups for the Asia section of the drive through. The smaller deer species are really into this and love coming right up to the cars for some nibbles (not of fingers, though!). It's been a huge success, but there are always downsides... birds are scary. The emus get right up in your business and go as far as sticking their heads into cars. CREEEPY! This causes people to drop feed cups from being startled, and the birds and other animals even take the cups out of guests' hands!

Frozen apple treats for the bears! Mak is just too cute.

"You expect me to bear this heat? That's impawsible!"

It was 97 degrees yesterday, and Mak knows the best way to cool off!

It's hot out and we still have to clean!

I have to say, in the last four months I have been so lucky to be working in such a beautiful place with such amazing animals. This internship has been an incredible experience for me. I am outside, working with the coolest animals, I am getting fit and I have been sleeping well. I think this was just the cure for anxiety I was needing! Thanks to everyone for the support during my time away. It's been hard to leave all my favorite people (and my cat) for an unpaid internship, but I love it here and am so grateful for this opportunity. 

Also, many thanks to those of you who read this blog, and for those who leave comments. If you have any questions, or suggestions for future post topics, feel free to let me know!