Once again, today has just been full if incredible experiences..
Tasks for me today were to shadow a tour, play with the caracals, refill the foot baths, prepare the chicken, and clean the meat room! Ok so the first few were fun, the later, a little more gruesome!
The first tour was a photography tour. Visitors pay a little more for this but they get extra time with the cats. There was only one guy on the tour at 8, and he was the father of one of the volunteers so he got even more... They really do like to look after family!
We started on the lion side, the first cats we see are the servals. Two of which we cant interact with. Bennie and Kitana; they are a breeding pair, bennie is too wild though and doesn't like humans, kitana only has 3 legs.
The 3 they can see are Allegra, Angie and Mikey. They all posed well for the camera although Allegra kept wondering off and poking through the grass, i went to check and found a pike of fly ridden chicken guts leftover from last nights feed. I didn't have a scoop but we needed to remove it. Only one thing for it... Hands in and pick it up, it was gross. Guts and goo everywhere!
Next we visited the leopards, wolves and lions, followed by goat and peanut. Finally we went in to see the caracals. Jack, Amy and Max. Amy has a thing for pouncing on anything dangly so i had to go put her away first. Max and Jack weren't up for posing, the heat was really rising and all the cats were becoming very lethargic, also for the past two night Jack hasn't been eating. We think he's constipated, so we've been trying to get fluid into him.
After that we went through to the cheetahs. First stop Dew, Eden and Faith, all under a year old these three are adorable and love interaction. Eden purrs so loudly! Sadly Faith isn't too good, she suffered meningitis when she was a few months old and its left her in a bad way. Her eyes are crossed, her tail has curled and she is really unsteady, walking almost crab like , but she is the most loving of cats you'll ever meet. Gabriel, the 4 month cheetah cub was out today and very playful too.
Finally we stopped by the meerkats for a play, i just love these little creatures, but by god they smell!
After the tour i got in with my two morning tasks - checking and refilling the foot baths we have to walk through before entering enclosures, and playing with the caracals, which involved taking some toys in and getting them running about and jumping.
I was done for the day then so spent more time cuddling zoro, and more time with the wolves, finally on the 4th visit i was fully accepted, this is signalled by Shakira licking your face. I as so pleased, she's such a beautiful animal.
Final task of the day before the feed, was to prepare the food. Today was a small feed so only the servals and caracals. The prep isn't hard, just messy. We get a bucket of chickens and we have to slit open the breast and put a spoon of vitamin mixture in, then separate out ready for feeding, finished by cleaning the meat room. I think I have to accept now that i am going to smell of raw chicken for weeks after.
Finally at feeding today we were all relieved as Jack finally ate :-)
We're all exhausted and back at the house now watching The Lion King!
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