Hey everyone. As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been less than consistent with my visiting (read: I haven't been visiting). While I'm sure I know what you're going to say, I really am sorry that I haven't been around. I had no idea this job would keep me so busy but I've had very little time between shifts. Work on Sunday was so good though that I figured it was definitely worth posting about. (Sorry Molly, no shoot-outs or anything like that but I did assist in the release of a hostage.)
So, the story starts out on Sunday. For the last week, while I was supposed to be out in the parks, I've been in the building filling in for people who called out. The building shifts are pretty boring so I wasn't thrilled about that but I guess it could be worse. Luckily though, I was posted at the county zoo on Sunday. While I'll be there for three weeks this month, it will be from 11 PM to 7 AM so none of the animals will be up. On Sunday though, I was there from 4 PM to midnight so I actually got a chance to walk around the zoo, which was fun. Before I go on with the day, as a little back story, I apparently came to this zoo quite a few times when I was little. While I don't remember it, being back after 13 years was interesting.
Anyway, on to the day. It started off in a fairly straightforward manner. I stood at the entrance and collected tickets and then closed the zoo at 4:30. After that is when things got interesting. My partner for the day and I took a walk through the zoo. The first fun thing we did was go into the budgie exhibit. It's essentially a big bird cage that you can walk into with hundreds of these colorful birds flying around. We both took a handful of seeds and fed them so at one point, I had six of these birds on my hands. They were actually really funny because one of them took four passes before he finally landed and started eating.
Continuing our walk, we passed a few interesting animals like the mountain lions and some monkeys. This led us to the highlight of the night - the ocelot cage. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, an ocelot looks pretty much like a little leopard - slightly bigger than a house cat. Anyway, we stopped to look at them when we noticed a chipmunk in the cage with them. Chances are it climbed in there not realizing the death that awaited it. So, we decided to sit back and see what happened. Of course, the ocelots, being cats, decided to play with it. They caught it, put it down, it ran, hid in some logs, and they caught it again. At one point, it ran into their little house and we thought it was a goner. When it got out alive, I started thinking that I'd like to try to save it. My partner said something along the lines of, "if you'd like to facilitate the little guy's escape, grab a long stick."
So, we both picked up long sticks and started trying to distract the ocelots (there were two of them) long enough for the chipmunk to get away. At first, they were pretty much ignoring the sticks. At some point, one of them got close enough so I could "pet" it with the stick. That got its attention for like two seconds - it turned around, bit the stick, and went back to the chipmunk.
When that plan failed, we thought all hope was lost. It started moving much more slowly and it really didn't seem like he had enough common sense left to leave through one of the holes in the cage (he would have had to climb up about four feet before the plastic mesh at the bottom ended). At that moment though, he found an escape path at the back corner of the cage and got out. The problem was, he was huddled at the outside corner of the cage in full range of the ocelots' paws. So, we fended off the ocelots (and kept the chipmunk from going back into the cage) long enough for my partner to get on some gloves she conveniently had with her, pick the chipmunk up (while I kept the ocelots from getting her), and bring it back into the woods. Surprisingly, even after being tossed around and bitten, it wasn't bloody. It didn't move when we put it down since it was probably scared out of its mind but at least it didn't end up a snack.
And that is how I assisted in the release of a hostage. Hehe, not what you were expecting, huh?
There's probably other stuff I could have said but since this post is already ridiculously long and the rest would have been about how I was back at the parks today and tomorrow and got the Fourth of July off, we'll skip it and go straight to the comments. I'll do my best to make it to all of your sites at least once over the three-day weekend. Thanks for reading and have a great night/day!
Molly:
I'm glad you enjoyed it! You've been good at keeping me entertained online too so thanks ^_^
Dagger:
Interesting is one way of putting it. On one side, I don't like it because I don't really get to see my friends much. On the other though, I like it a lot since I don't have to change my schedule in terms of going to bed and waking up.
enin:
Your job sounds about the same as mine if I'm the only one in the building (when I am in the building) so I know where you're coming from. And it's nice to see you around too.
