One of those days - 12/23/2001

Tomorrow being Christmas Eve, and a short day at work so we can spend time with our families without pulling a full day of work, me and the woman I work with on the weekend decide yesterday that we're going to do a little extra work yesterday and today so that we'll be a bit ahead and Monday will go smoothly (I work with two of them tomorrow, for the extra pay since fulltimers have the day off, then we're stuck with the whiney little keeper I want to throw into the bears (V of the deer emergency entry....... who always leaves late....... so we wanted to have no excuses and be able to go home AT 3)).

Yesterday went superbly, we got ahead, made double the food needed and put what kept back in the freezer. All was good.

This morning goes well, too, T wasn't feeling good, so I was going to team up with her and B and help out with their stuff, and the three of us would tackle mine and all would go quickly. This was the plan for tomorrow, anyway, since it was a short day. So I'm out at the bears doing the normal morning thing with another keeper, J, and we get this call from T "Uh...... what do I do when a shed collapsed over the night?"

This...... got a raised brow. Obviously the next question was "Did it collapse -on- anybody?"

Twenty minutes later I find that the overhang veranda sorta deal on the wild burro and pony's shelter in Children's Park has...... wimped out. It hung, at this precarious angle, about 30 or so degrees to the very muddy ground.

Not good.

Then, there is T at the top of a ladder, whacking away at the still attached slats and whatnot with this little hand hammer, not making too incredibly much progress. J and B are moving the three or four slats that have come loose out of the paddock. Now, J and B, and even T, aren't incredibly large women..... took two of them sometimes to carry the rain soaked 2x10s out.

In comes manly man *grunt*

Up the ladder I go for the first time today (oh, it gets better) and proceed to tear another few boards off, the little leverage pry claw thingy on the back of the hammer is good for something. On a whim, I climb down and move to the other end (that was hanging down) and loosen a few boards. CreeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkBANG! Down comes the dangling roof, completely wiping out the ladder I was just on.

I'm talking ladder FLYING away as the roof swung and dropped.

...

Heh... insert wiping of brow here.

Needless to say, the roof was much easier to tear apart then move out (yes, I also just heaved the boards over the 5' fence rather than carting them through the gate *smirk*). The burro and pony still had shelter, it was a little smaller, but all was good, just had to get all the broken boards and nails out of the paddock. Then, the great horned owl that one of our docents had out as an educational animal for the visiting kiddos today, happened to have somehow broken a flight feather about halfway down (probably banged herself up in the carrier whilst waiting for R to take her out for the session). R, a really cool docent and one of the most knowledgeable we have, found me and Super Keeper to the rescue.....!..... I clipped the feather (it wasn't broken high enough to be dangerous) so it wouldnt' catch on anything and actualy pull out and ushered them back out on their way.

Went to go help finish up in Children's Park...... but they were almost done with the actual cleaning...... but this last rain seems to have made everything intensely green so we had to remove all of that (algae in enclosures is a USDA violation, so we were literaly raking out and shoveling dirt). Then this injured songbird came in, so had to take care of that. Cat caught in, but no external injuries.... blood in the mouth, but seems it swallowed a human hair and that may have irritated it's innards. So once that was extracted it was better, and by the end of the day eating on it's own. Probably releasing the little tyke in the next day or two.

Mammal round went without a hitch, between T, B and I.

So..... now it's lunch....... finally.

After lunch, head out to raptors..... which is technically my section. Walk into the Great Horned Owl enclosure and find that one of our females is doing her bat routine. She'll hang from the top netting, sometimes, and just watch what's going on.

Five minutes later she hasn't moved.

So I watch, hooting back at her as she hoots at me. She flaps her wings to fly away..... and just spins around her right foot.

Yes indeed, she's caught in the netting. Twenty feet above the ground. Right in the middle of the big triangular section of netting that has nothing we can lean a ladder against to reach her (as we don't have an A frame that's tall enough, of course).

Super Keeper creativity is called for!

We take this 7 foot A-frame ladder, and a big extension ladder.... which we lean -against- the A frame, and brace it with S (our custodian), T AND B and send Mr. Afraid of Heights up the ladder as he has the longest reach to cut a hole in the netting and untangle the raptor (J was holding the long pole with net on end to catch the owl when she fell free).

*dry look*

Ilis (translates to Eye-Less *chuckle* She's got one eye and only about half her toes, total) turned out to be fine, just a little frazzled.

And after all this...... we only left 10 minutes late. Have I ever mentioned I have a great weekend team?