It’s A Zoo

We have a nature center here at camp, but during the winter all of the animals are brought into the office. It’s then my responsiblity to make sure that they are feed, watered, and handled.

We have a huge tank of goldfish, they don’t take much to look after but when one dies I just have to fish it out!

There is a fiesty little iguana that I am terrified of. He likes to jump and run and swing his tail and jump out of his cage. I haven’t picked him up in months. The last time I did pick him up, I was at my desk and he was on my shoulder, he jumped off and fell between my desk and wall. I thought that we would never see him again, but no, he had clung onto the phone cord. After that, I just can’t work up the nerve to take him out of his cage.

We have a 4 foot snake. I never used to mind the snake and it sure didn’t bother me to pick it up. But since about April, he has been grossing me out. We have to feed it two live mice every two weeks. I would rather touch the snake than the mice, so it’s a job shared between my boss and I. It’s usually pretty funny and there is lots of screaching and throwing about. But it gets done.

There is a rabbit. We just keep him outside and sometimes I take him out and he likes to hop away and then I have to run after him. He’s pretty low maintance and just likes to gnaw on his cage all the time.

And this nasty turtle that we have. I just cleaned his tank and put in a new water pump. The filter ALREADY needs to be changed that’s how dirty he is. I also put in a total of 13 goldfish yesteday. These would usually last him a few months as he doesn’t eat them very often. Well, this morning I went to feed the fish and there were only 2 left. He ate 11 goldfish in the span of twelve hours, the only reason he didn’t eat the other two are because they are too big for his little mouth. What a pig!

And lastly, we have my favorite tortoise, Toby. He is great except when he feels the need to try and escape his tank and just bangs on it for hours and hours. Everytime that happens we just throw some lettuce in there and he eats and then is quiet for a few hours. I dont’ know if tortoises can get fat, but he would be, with all the lettuce we give him!

It’s a crazy zoo up in this office. And I swear there are raccoons living in the walls too!