Beautiful Day For A Walk

Fun at the Zoo

Today was my first day of manning the giraffe stand at our local zoo!! It was so interesting! I got a chance to really experience the different personalities of the two giraffes. The female, Zuri, was more timid and shy than the larger male, Hodari. This being said, she still enjoyed her fair share of goodies to eat, including poplar leaves and rye crackers. It was also amazing to witness the interaction between the zoo visitors and the enormous giraffes. The little kids were for the most part apprehensive about sticking their little fingers near the slimy tongues of Zuri and Hodari, but after the first leaf, most quite thoroughly enjoyed the experience! Many adults also loved feeding the giraffes too..and the giraffes were definitely not opposed to it either! Here is a picture of the majestic Hodari!!

Its Great to Be Back

     First of all, I want to wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick's Day! I feel bad about neglecting this blog for as long as I have, but I'm going to try and change that! In the past few months, snow has been plaguing our area, along with everywhere else it seems! Don't get me wrong, I love snow and all the exhilarating activities, but it does get old after a while. Luckily, all four of the little fur balls (Pie, Midnight, Sunny, and Charlie) absolutely love the snow! Pie has been completely content with digging in the snow and flipping it all over, including on top of Midnight. Charlie and Sunny have learned that running atop four foot tall can be quite exciting. Here are some pictures of my little babies from the last few months..enjoy!

Bunny Update

     So its been a couple of weeks since the discovery of baby bunnies in my backyard, and I am glad to announce that they are doing well! Everyday around dusk, my family and I see the little bunnies joyfully eating and romping around in the grass.There are a couple of generations around and you can see the variance in size between them. Even though they all have been spotted happily munching my mom's flowers on a couple of occasions, I'm ecstatic that they are thriving! One odd quirk about them is that the young ones have an alarming trust of humans and dogs. They don't flee when one of my family or our dogs come near and only hop away if we are withing five or six feet. Of course, my family and I would never hurt them, but there are lots of wild animals and dogs and people who would. Because of this, I really hope they stick around my house, and I also  enjoy seeing them every day munching and roaming around in the grass!

Cute Video of Pie

Here is an adorable video of Pie eating...

Hello Again!

It's been quite a while since I last posted! Summer is well on its way, considering its already July 25!

 Here are some pictures of Sunny and Charlie peacefully sunning themselves on a beautiful afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

For the Fourth of July, my family and I went on a road trip, so Sunny and Charlie took a trip to the local boarding kennel and a close friend of mine kindly came over every day to take care of Pie and Midnight. On the way to the kennels, the little guys were not well behaved. Sunny was quite stressed and howled and or whimpered the entire way there with no avail from me to try and comfort him. Charlie was quiet which helped because all my attention was focused on trying to calm Sunny. Anyways, we got to the kennels and it appeared that Sunny had finally calmed down and seemed to be curious about where he was. It seemed like they both had forgotten that this was the dreaded place where they went every year for a haircut. I was in charge of getting Charlie in the door which was predetermined in my mind to be quite simple. It was all great until he got his front legs into the doorway...then he realized where he was and shot out of there backwards like the place was on fire! Luckily I had a tight grip on the leash otherwise he would have made a mad dash for freedom! I was so embarrassed but the guy who brought them to the back was very nice and just laughed. I was very sad to have to leave them both for a week, but they were in great hands and it was a welcome sight to see them running up to greet us when we came back with their tails wagging and tongues hanging out!

     My bunnies were quite well behaved on the other hand and my friend said they gave her no trouble. I knew that they would be good; for rabbits, they are both quite social and one sure way to win their hearts is to come with yogurt chips stashed in your pockets! They are both quite trusting when it comes to me and my family going out and feeding them or giving them grass throughout the day, but I wasn't sure how they would be if a stranger came and fed them. I didn't know if they would hide away and get really scared or try to escape, but luckily neither of those events happened.

Baby Bunny Saga

     It all started when one day about a month ago; I let Sunny and Charlie out to do their business in the yard. Soon I was alerted by some barks that there was a little creature trying desperately to be camouflaged in tall grass. My first thought was that it was a mouse or vole, but upon further inspection I realized that it was a baby bunny! I didn't know whether to try and take the bunny into our house and nurture it, or to leave it in case the mother was going to come back. I read online that if you touch baby bunnies their mother won't take them back, and I also read that it's really hard to raise wild baby bunnies so I was apprehensive about disturbing this little guy. After checking on the little guy for the next few hours, I saw that he seemed to be breathing without difficulty and decided to wait until the next morning and see if the mother would return. The next morning, I woke up early and went out to see if the little visitor was still there or if he had been swept away by his mother. Unfortunately, the little bunny was still there, however the good news was that he was still alive and breathing. My next move was to search for a nest of some sort that the bunny may have strayed from and now was lost and couldn't find his way back. After my search provided no hint of a nest, I started to walk back to my house and get a box ready and bring the little guy inside. On a stroke of luck, I happened to look down and spotted a patch of fur. It was a nest of baby bunnies!!! Quickly, I scooped up the lone baby bunny in a pair of gardening gloves that I rubbed vigorously in the grass to try to disguise the scent and placed him in the nest with the others. Right away, he wiggled right to the middle of the group and seemed to be at home.After covering up the nest with the fur and grass which were originally concealing it, I hoped that the mother was still taking care of the babies. 

 Over the next week or so, I periodically checked on the bunnies and they seemed to be fine up until the day that I went to see them and 

they were gone. I figured that they were old

 enough to leave the nest and the mother had

 relocated them, and luckily I was right. 

A few weeks later, I spotted the whole family eating fresh, green grass in our backyard. The whole family are alive and doing well!:)

The Snake

     The other day, my family and I were playing bocce ball. The object of the game is to be the person whose large green or red ball is closest to a little white ball that is thrown first. As we were strolling towards the cluster of bocce balls, a gigantic snake suddenly appeared next to my brother's feet and started slithering away from where my brother was stepping. Screaming and running ensued, but we finally went back to get a closer look at this snake. It was about three feet long with a yellow and brown patterned skin. What really worried me was this snake kept rattling it's butt like a rattle snake would do when it feels threatened, but I wasn't sure if there were any in my area. I looked on google and I found out that two types of poisonous snakes are found in my area, one happening to be the timber rattler. Luckily, the snake did not fit the pictures of timber rattlers, so I figured that this was a different species. Species of snakes, such as the milksnake, have rattling tails as a defense mechanism because animals contribute that characteristic to poisonous, therefore leaving the reptile alone. This is definitely effective because my family and I left that snake alone!

N.E.W Excitement

     I'm so excited! I have just started volunteering at the N.E.W Zoo, which is a zoo near my house. Since I really enjoy being around animals, this is the perfect opportunity for me. Among the many activities that are available, there is Zoo Watch. Zoo watch is basically observing an animal in the zoom,(giraffe, emu, prairie dog, etc), and looking for any behavior out of the ordinary. My first day, I mostly did this activity, and it was so much fun! Animals that I watched were a red panda, moose, snow leopard, Japanese macaques, Canadian lynx, elk, and prairie dogs. It was really interesting to observe these majestic animals for a length of time because their personalities really show. The Japanese macaques were especially active, the young ones running around playing fetch and joyously sprinting through the water. They reminded me a lot of humans, the way they interacted with the others and how there was a tiny baby and as he explored, his mother sat nearby intently watching him and protecting him. The prairie dogs were quite interesting; they came out of their holes at around 4:00 pm and seemed to be very hungry! I really enjoyed watching them chew their hay and then stand up on their little hind legs when they were alerted that danger may be near. I also performed exhibit window washing and sweeping up the walkways. My day was filled with new excitement and I am overjoyed to be helping out at the zoo and learning new things along the way.

On a Nice Quiet Rabbit Stroll

     First rabbit-walking adventure of the summer! I am so happy! I always enjoy watching my bunnies hopping around, joyously exploring the wide open spaces outside of their confined home headquarters. Pie is the rabbit pictured here because I can only walk one at a time as a result of two bunnies loving to go in opposite directions and me only capable of traveling in one at a time. Rabbit-walking is an acquired skill; I am speaking from some experience! First of all, rabbits do not always enjoy being harnessed. It's quite scary for them to have foreign apparatuses strapped on, but luckily they get used to it relatively fast. Second, they do not always listen to the specific route that you had in mind. Basically, you are going where ever they wish and trying to keep them out of areas that they do not belong! Even though it can be tough to get the hang of it at first with learning how to direct them, the end is worth it when you can witness your babies having a great old time and just being carefree.

      An adventure-loving rabbit, Pie is quite amused by running all over the place;exploring minor details of the big picture called nature. Open areas are not well-liked by nature as a result of prey instincts to hide, so Pie is always to enter tall grass or underneath trees but I worry that she may escape because I don't tighten her harness too much. As a result of all the frantic running and eating as much grass as possible, every once in a while Pie likes to take a break and soak up some rays of sunshine. Here are some of the pictures I took on the journey although Pie wasn't too keen on posing!