Serendipity

Playboy Bunnies ;) *LOL*

( More random photos under the cut. )

And thus ends the picspam. My second day at the Mansion was much better than the first. Working without somebody watching over my shoulder was much more relaxing. It was a gorgeous day, I felt more comfortable with the other girls, and with meals giving us nice little breaks, the day seemed to go by quickly. I was surprised when I was finished with half an hour to spare! So, it wasn't that bad, and I'm actually kinda eager to go back again (see how long THAT lasts!). Worrying about securing a place to live before January and how I'm going to earn enough to get by, however, is leaving me on-again off-again panicked. For now, I'm going with getting any place I can get on short notice in Thousand Oaks, and seeing how much I can earn between Playboy and pet-sitting. If I can't earn enough, I'll just move back to Minnesota. There. Plan. Sort of.

Today was my day in the X-Files Advent Calendar, and while I'm fairly happy with my collage, I ran out of time to really finish it, and never figured out what text to put on it, so it looks horribly bare and unfinished. Bah.

So, my pet-sitting ends tomorrow, I'm staying with Krista through the weekend, and flying to Minnesota on Monday. I will have sporadic internet access probably for the rest of the month, so...I'll see you when I see you!

( Late Addition: RIP Sage )

I was going to devote today to packing, but then I got a call from a friend at the zoo - my dear Goblin died this morning. It took a while for it to sink in but once it did, I was a mess. I went in to the zoo and they had already started her necropsy. It looks like it was congestive heart failure (she was 31 - a ripe old age for a baboon). I talked with some friends, helped them do some hand-prints for her trainers, and did as much as I could. It was cathartic. I'm very thankful they let me be there and participate.

I actually had gone in to the zoo on Saturday and seen Goblin. She looked older and more crotchety than usual, but she grunted and lip-smacked at me, which made me so happy. She was the only animal that really remembered me and greeted me like a friend when I visited. My dear, dear Gobbie. She was old, it was her time, but it's still really tough. I miss her so much. I'd give anything to relax in the sun and groom with her again. It was a gift that she remembered me, and I got to see her before she died, and I got to say goodbye to her. My dear girl.

( Goblin )

Lookie! I asked a friend to take a video of the cougar boys at the zoo for me, and she returned with this. For me, it's all about the 5 seconds in the middle where Spirit purrs. The best sound in the world! When both of them get going, rubbing against the fence, vying for your attention, it's like two jet engines - you can feel it in your chest. Awww, I miss them so much. My boys.

( Feel the rumble. )

And then of course there's XF! There was the wonder of Wondercon this last weekend (where fandom goes boom) and then there's...all my regular XF squeeage.

( Wondercon )

Now, general fannish stuff. First off, everyone must go watcherock_x's amazing new Mulder video. And then go watch all her other vids. Because they are amazing. And Gillian watched one. ;) Okay, we have no proof of this, but very strong suspicions! Hehe.

And then of course I'm still slowly working my way through ChronX, and loving every minute of it. I'm only on the mid-B's. This should totally last me through July (especially if I don't become distracted and try to read everything by every new author I find, d'oh).

You, my flist, rocketh hard-core. I'm just filled with the random love today, so have a hug. Heck, have two. I love you all. *mwah*

OK, I stopped doing my pictures from EATM thing a while ago before I could finish my favorite animals, so thus, here is my dear Salsa-bird.

( Picspam ahoy )

In unrelated news, it's snowing up in the mountains north of here and the news is like "OMG, snow! Breaking news, people, it's SNOWING! Close down the highway, the snowplows need to get through!!" *snork*

The picture updates continue. With video! This time, Friday the raccoon.

( Fri-Fri )

OK, I really need to upload some pics from the zoo, for my own memories if nothing else. Sooo, I'm gonna start small, with some of the miscellaneous animals.

( Animal Pictures! )

OK, that's all for today. Coming up soon: Projects, Salsa, Goblin, and the baaaaby.

Donna's sick. I don't know what it is. But she's really lethargic, discoordinated...she can't walk, she can't seem to move one of her back legs that much. And she's got eye-boogers, which all sick rats get. Really, I don't think she'll make it through the night. Oh God. This is tough. I didn't know what I was going to do with her once I had to move, and was almost thinking her time would come before I had to decide, but it's still painful. Donna was my sweet sweet girl who never bit, never ran away - she was always nice and gentle and shy. She ran her maze like a pro and got me a 100 in Behavior lab. And she's my little TV star, being on an episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine in the short time it was on. And just quiet evenings when she'd sit on my shoulder and grate her teeth in happiness. Oh, my poor Donna. I'm sorry I didn't take better care of you. I'm sorry I didn't notice you were sick earlier.

I snuggled with her a bit, gave her more food than she'll know what to do with, and put her lixit down lower so she can reach it. She probably won't ever get to most of it, but maybe she'll go happy. My dear Donna.

We brought Friday (the raccoon) to the vet today, as she's had blood in her urine lately and she needed a full check-up. So the 4 of us (2 current trainers and 2 past trainers) piled in the school van and drove to a nice little clinic in Thousand Oaks. The staff there was just wonderful - they let us watch everything and patiently answered all our questions. First off we transfered Friday to a smaller crate which they then wrapped in plastic bags in order to anaesthetize her. The pumped in the gas and soon enough she was out like a light. Theypulled her out, put a mask on her, and then intubated her. They weighed her (20.5 lbs!), did X-rays, and put a heart monitor on her tongue. It was actually kind of creepy - hearing the constant beep-beep-beep increase and descrease, and jumping when it suddenly goes silent. But she was fine. They wanted a sterile urine sample, but her bladder was empty. They tried several times to pull out some urine with a long needle, but they never got any. Since she was under anyways, they then did some dentistry work. We watched the basic teeth cleaning and when that was done, we cleaned out her ears (they were nasty!) and I clipped her nails. One of her canines was rotten and half gone, so the vet then came in to remove it. It was fascinating to watch - he cut a slice of the gum open and went to town on the tooth, ripping away all the connective tissue deep under the gum. It started rocking back and forth and finally came loose. It was actually much less bloody than I feared - I was fascinated! I watched him suture up the gum, and try one last time to get some urine. They put her back in her crate and covered her with a heating pad while they removed the gas. When she started coughing on the air tube, they removed it and gave her a subcutaneous injection of a pain-killer. By then it was too late for us to bring her back to the zoo, so she's staying there overnight. The poor girl was just waking up as we left.

It was really, really fascinating, though. We got to look at the X-rays and help keep the breathing tube in place. I saw how they varied her depth of anaesthesia - they tried to keep it as low as possible, but if she started coughing on the tube, they raised the gas level and pumped it in quickly by squeezing a little inflating bag. We got to get a good look at her teeth and feel her soft paw pads. The vets AND the vet techs were all wonderful, kind people, and I was so glad they let us be as involved as we were. It was a great experience.

I also learned during the trip that Laura, one of my classmates and a fellow Kera feeder, got a marine mammal job. She did a project at a dolphin center in Florida, and was hired. She's moving out there as soon as we graduate to start her job as a dolphin trainer. It did make me very envious - I've been looking at a few jobs but none as nice as that one. Why do some people have all the luck? In any case, it incited me to get off my @ss and write a cover letter I've been meaning to write. I'm going to send in some applications this week - no more excuses.

My sister is just too sweet. She's been telling me forever that I need to watch Firefly, and having heard about it on LJ, I agreed. Today I received a package from her which includes the entire series! There's also The Neverending Story 1 and 2, two scifi books, and a bunch of old sentimental family pictures. It was a great belated christmas present. Having also recently received Miss Congeniality and The 40-Year Old Virgin that I ordered off Amazon, I have plenty to keep me busy! Woohoo!

The zoo has been busy busy busy...classes start again tomorrow, though next week I'm doing a project (read: internship) with a local dog trainer. I'm looking forward to it! I also had a good session today with the new zoo dog, Jade. She's a young boxer mix and HYPER, so I've mainly been just exercising her, working on staying calm, and not biting at everything. It will definately be a project. Anything else to say? No, guess not. Now on to your regularly scheduled flist.

Brought Friday (the raccoon) out on leash today so she could sniff around and have some enrichment, and while we were out, I tested my training on her. I've been training her since September to target to a laser pointer, and lately it's turned into targeting her onto a wooden disk and doing behaviors (wave, worry, think). So I placed her mark several feet away and sent her to it. She went right there, stood up and looked at me, and waited for her next command. It was awesome, as I've only started training her on the mark a few feet away. She caught on so fast! I'm really proud of her.

Anyways, took out Malaika as well, and got a picture.

( Me and my birdy )