AWEsome Opportunity!! (Long story!)

[JLC]

So...my dobie has been in obedience and agility classes with a really neat trainer named Nell. Nell is amazing with dogs, and you can tell she has a real heart for all animals. She told me a story once about some camels that she and her son had taken care of when they were volunteering at a zoo some years ago. The thought of a local zoo in this little podunk town remained abstract to me, despite how cool her story was. I just didn't click that there was a real zoo around here.

A few days later, she noticed my 8-Ball t-shirt that I was wearing to class one day...one of many snake shirts I've worn to classes. She asked if I had snakes ("A few") and asked if I had any experience handling snakes ("A little")...then proceeds to tell me about this Burmese python that they had cared for at that same zoo with the camels a couple years ago. Her son had recently been back, doing some work around the zoo and said the burm was looking a little too thin and not particularly well cared for. The zoo owner, while a lover of all animals, is not really "into" snakes and the poor dear wasn't a high priority. Nell asked me if I would be interested in going out to this zoo as a volunteer and take care of "Butterscotch" the albino Burm.

Well, needless to say, she didn't need to threaten me with a hot poker or anything! I was like, "SURE!"....so we went out there and I met the zoo owner (Debbie) and Butterscotch, and a very pretty little albino-striped corn snake named Tattoo. Debbie was thrilled to have someone who wasn't afraid of Butterscotch and who had some level of knowledge and was willing to volunteer to take care of her. She pretty much gave me free rein to do whatever I'd like with the enclosures and the entire "snake house"...so long as it doesn't cost her much more than she already pays for food and bedding. (Budgets are pretty darned tight at a private zoo with many large animals!) We estimated that Butterscotch is currently about 7.5' long...and she's not emaciated or anything like that, but she is definitely a bit underweight...and I think if she'd been fed more regularly over the last couple years, she'd be a lot bigger than she is now.

Debbie has three African lions, one mountain lion, two bobcats, five wolves, two black bears, two foxes, three very large 'gators, countless monkeys, lemurs, deer, antelope, goats, peacocks, llamas, and other smaller animals. For being a seriously "off the beaten track" private little zoo run by one older woman, it's run remarkably well. The animals are all healthy and as well adjusted as captive animals can be, I guess. The enclosures are kept clean and the animals are all interacted with and given appropriate stimulation to whatever level is safe. The snake-house is kind of scary and run-down, but adequate. I'm going to try and clean it up and fix it up really nice over the next year. She's also got two tortoises (one sulcatta and one that I believe is a leopard, but I'm not sure) that I want to make a new enclosure for...theirs is the one enclosure that makes me really sad for its inadequacy.

Today, I went out there and spent a couple hours just helping out with other chores around the zoo...carrying sacks/tubs of feed, feeding monkeys, cleaning out around the bear enclosure, herding pigs....fun stuff! I got licked by a bear!!! I was cleaning out the hair and muck that collects around the bottom edge of their enclosure...and he would stick his very long tongue out through the fence to lick at me. It was quite funny. His name is Albert and he is very friendly...but his mate (who's name I can't remember) will take your head off if you're not careful, so I'm told.

I have a feeling my involvement will very quickly go far beyond just the reptiles. I've got a few pictures, but not many yet. And I can't upload them from this computer, so that will have to wait 'til tomorrow when the other computer is free.

It's all so very cool and I'm VERY excited at this amazing opportunity to not only take care of someone else's reptiles (because I'm able to have so very few of my own)....but to also get some amazing hands-on experience caring for some seriously exotic, very beautiful animals!!