Day Three

today (wednesday) was more fun then yesterday, yesterday I started with the little cute ducklings and ended up doing a lot of washing and tidying. mucked out the hedge pigs too. Ended up using my initiative due to lack of things to do at one point and folded and industrial laundry carrier thing's worth of towels and sheets. Not only was this thing full, but piled up to about my height.

Wednesday 13 June, 7:55 - 16:20
Today I was in the orphan room, fed the baby birds, some so small/young they're still in a heated box. They're fed Harrison's recovery mix, the ominvorous species have cat meat added to it. This is fed to them by hand, every hour, on the thin end of those tiny plastic spatulas, I want to call them make - up spatulas but not sure what their original purpose was. Anyway,this is kind of shoved down their throats, they don't seem to mind, some actively seem to try and impale themselves on it, which goes through me.
The ones that can eat for themselves or that are starting to are fed prosecto (squished bugs), a mixture of seeds and some meal worms dependent on species and age.
The baby wood pigeons are crop-tubed and are fed a liquid juvenile mix, I didn't get to do this though :(
Cleaned the cages and re-made 'nests' for the really young nestlings, this was regularly halted in order to do the feeds. Something else that occured at least once for every cage of small, fledged birds I cleaned, like the blue tits and sparrows, one would escape. Didn't take much for each to be caught up, but still resulted in a minor panic.
Becoming well versed in how to sweep and mop the corridor.
In the orphan room, due to it being quarantined as it had trichomonosis, was a rather friendly crow :D He was PTS near the end of the day though, had finished his course of treatment with no improvement and as it's highly contagious he couldn't go with the other crows in the aviary, nor could he be released without flight practice. :(
Trichomonosis is found at the back of the throat, charaterised by typical sick bird symptoms and can be fatal.

Cleaned out the hedgepigs again, one made the cutest noises ever, although when I asked about it they turned out to be pissed off hedgehog noises. Woops.
The one that weighed 1.01kg (fatty), was notable due to having a clear/white bubbly nasal discharge, looked a bit like spit. One had green feaces with blood in it and a couple others had ringworm, another had a yukky, infected toe that was oozing pus.

Did the ducklings (big AWWWWWW) afternoon feeds and waters, replaced wet shavings and generally tidied up in the duckling room. They're fed a high protein duckling crumb, one enclosure-ful has prosecto with this.
Corvid feeds were done at four, swopped the little birds for a chance to coo over crows again, there is a big, loud, demanding one that I really like, he hops on you and caws lots. :D Has a big gob too
The Jackdaws don't hop on you, they mob you and scream.
Want a pet crow.


x

Chilling with the Corvids

First day of my work placement at the wildlife centre today and as it's a college related placement it's related to coursework >.<
As part of that we have to keep a record of what we do there, so as SugarPuff doesn't have a word processor atm I'll just just it up here, probably save the rest as drafts and publish them weekly.
So here we go...

Monday 11 June, 7:55-16:15, Day 1
Got there before all the staff, which led to some confusion as to whether the doorbell worked or not. For the most part of the day I was in the corvid room. This consisted of three aviaries, one for crows, another for jackdaws and a third for magpies, along with this there were a few in cat baskets, with more arriving as the day continued.
Now not only did all of these need cleaning, but feeding every hour too, by hand. Everyone, and there was a lot.. But it was fun, until a magpie launched itself at my face or the jackdaws decided I was safe to land on, placing them that much closer to my ear when they wanted to shriek. Still partially deaf I'm sure.

The crows had to have been my favourite, they didn't try aim their shit at me, were polite and waited their turn for food, took said food nicely and scream at me. I want one. Or two.

They're fed seed, dog biscuits, tinned cat meat, ground up bugs and chopped up chicks (thankfully it never came to me preparing that part of the food) Along with feeding the feathery things, had to clean them out, catch up several escapees and sweep.

Someone was asked to show me how to sweep the corridor, srsly. and we found unicorn blood.

Which was probably swan shit, hence why I wasn't all that tempted to taste it, even though it looked like unicorn blood. Had the right consistency too.

Without realising I accidentally let a magpie out - the door to their aviary doesn't close properly in my defense, and to my knowledge it's still between the aviary and wall. Woops.

Yes, I did get shat on, but was wearing overalls so tis all good. Wasn't wearing a hat though, but luckily only one little one got my hair, think I was quite lucky.

saw a hedgehog for the first time (I think?) and OMG I want it! Looked so soft and cute and cuddly!!

I also learnt to operate the washing machine and tumble dryer.

End of day one. I think?
-----------------------------------------------

Will of course have to revise that before adding it to my assignment :p

Also, sadly only down to one chicken now, Blossom had been sick for awhile and when we got home on saturday it was clear she wouldn't make the night.
The neighbor is going to give us one of his, so Bubbles won't be along, think we're picking her up tomorrow, all I know is that she is a buff Lincolnshire?  So should look a bit like this:


Effectively, like bubbles, despite being a fancy breed.

Off to do some revision now! Exam is on Friday. Shit.

Some New Things

Just got a new laptop, SugarPuff, after the last one's motherboard blew up. Is it bad that I'm missing a laptop? :( Realised I was really horrible last night and left SugarPuff next to JellyBean's corpse all night. The death of Jelly was partially the reason for the lack of blogging but have to say, I'm just crap at updating.
Overall things have been really good recently, got a part time job as a zookeeper, which is rather fun, I genuinely love it. End up shattered afterwards though.
It's the last day of my first year at this college, although I finished the course last week, this week has been thrilling as a result. Do go on a five week work placement after the half term at a local wildlife hospital - really hope there are fox cubs to play with, and birds! Love birds, especially psittcines and birds of prey :D

Saw Guns 'n Roses night before last at the MEN in Manchester. Thin Lizzy opened for them, they were quite good, I enjoyed it but the crowd was a bit shitty. It's difficult to get excited in a room full of unexcited people, that said, never seen the MEN so empty O.o
G n' R were EPIC though!! Loved them, and all three guitarists were AMAZING, Richard Fortus has really nice hands btw, is that weird? It was an amazing gig, lots of flashy lights and pyrotechnincs, over ran by about two hours though, didn't mind too much tbh, was fun. Did mean I only got to bed at about 3.50 before a 6.30 start. fun. 
Would do it again any day though, they were so worth the money. Not just so that I can rub in in my stepmommy's face either. 


Some more about the job and why it's epic. 
Get to work with some rather cool animals, ring-tailed lemur who are so fun to hand feed, a grumpy serval, Brazilian tapir, which are just big doggies. You can just walk up to them, scratch them under the chin and they will honestly just flop over onto the floor and roll over - so cute! 
However, DO NOT APPROACH UNKNOWN TAPIRS! Although multiple accounts imply that most tapirs, Brazilian ones anyway seem to react like this. 
That said the Malaysianones have a reputation for being iffy.  
Malaysian tapir - DO NOT TOUCH

Brazilian tapir - APPROACH WITH CARE, but they do like cuddles.
There are also alpaca, not llama, sheep, poultry with the world's most violent goose, shitty  ponies and porcupine. On the subject of porcupine, I want a porcupine called Mike that I can harness train and take for walks.
There are also a few birds of prey and parakeets, only got one Senegal parrot too.

But what I tend to end up working most with is these:

 The Emperor Newts, Tylototriton shanjing, NOT verrucosus are my favourite :)
There was some iffiness about the species classification.
I don't mind working with the Bearded Dragons, quite like some of them. The snakes still scare my loads though, being attacked by the Amazoinan Boa didn't help my perception of them as evil scary prehistoric monsters.
Attacked is probably a strong word, but she went for me, didn't get me though so it was okay. Kinda wish she had though, would have been awesome to show off with :p


The only difference is that the one at work is more patterned and purpleier and secretes evil, bitchy vibes.


My best friend is also moving this weekend :( Spending the first part of half term with her, and and it's going to be horrible without her just up the road! At the same time it's really scary,she has her own, relatively successful business and is moving out while I still have years of education stretching ahead of me O.o
And it's so grown up! We're not old enough to do that sort of thing yet!

So excited to have my A2 exams over with soon and to doing my work placement! the latter more so. There is also the summer ball coming up and I'm going home again!
x

Too little coffee and too much to do...

...Well that's what it seems like most of the time at the moment.

Gone back to what was the original layout as it's easier to read and personally, I find it more aesthetically pleasing. Also the last one reminded me perpetually of Easter and spring.
Speaking of which, hope those of you (that's if anyone actually reads this) that celebrated it had a good time.
Also, in the northern hemisphere it is currently spring, so it would have been topical, but it annoyed me, so had to go.

Decided to give up with pet related posts, seems to have been a bit of an upheaval as far as they're concerned and the numbers fluctuate too quickly for me to keep up. May even been more additions in September/October.

Will see.

Not much else to say.
Got a job as a part time zookeeper
Can feel stress levels rising daily along with a marked decrease in intelligence and patience.
There also seems to be a definite problem with time, it seems to be a bit lacking recently.

Will have more to say when motivated

x

I want a Serval

Or at the least a Savannah cat

The idea of weekly updates seems to have been defenestrated, will try write more regularly than once every few months though.

Now have (another) cat, this little one was found in the engine bay of a hyundai. Not only did he have to go throw the shame of being mistaken for a girl, but a few days later in a scrap with one of the other cats, was blinded.
Vet removed the cornea and he is apparently doing fine :D

College has broken up for the Christmas holidays, but the lecturers have kindly given me a sizable amount of coursework (which I have barely started and already lost) to amuse myself with. Amazingly I had all my present  shopping done by the beginning of December, proving that I do, occasionally, have the ability to organise myself. That said it did seem a fair bit easier than it usually does.
The main issue this year seems to be getting it to people, not sure if I'd want to post the parcels either.


OH! My greatest achievement for the year so far, managing to successfully get into, and served at, a handful of pubs, WITHOUT ID.
Taking into consideration I look about 15. The bouncers clearly loved me :p
Although my friend reckons it was the 'sexy santa' outfit; was out raising money for charity, don't judge. Seriously, it deserves more recognition than getting a couple of Bs in my first year of A levels

Now really have to get that coursework started.

xx

More Pets!

I've told you (and shown you awesome drawings) of my chickens, of which we sadly only have two left of.
So now you're getting all the others. Was originally going to do several separate ones, the cats, the other cats, my special princess cat, the dogs and Bird but as I have absolutely nothing else to do today, you're getting treated to a massive long one.
Funfun.

Actually, I'll just do the kitties today, I'm not that desperate.

The African Cats
Both of these children are part AWC, but how much we're not too sure about. Although the general consensus is that the Little One is a product of Mr Cat II's  wanderings before he had his bits removed. While she has the more African Wild Cat markings, and shorter fur, Missy has the better colour.

Now for a Fantastic, Wonderfully Accurate drawing:

But the issue, you see, is that this first drawing wasn't that accurate. I hadn't met the Little One yet when I drew it a few months ago, and it's been a year since I'd seen Missy, who'd changed considerably.

So, here is a more Wonderfully Accurate drawing:
The Little one is honestly the living incarnation of Simon's cat, as far as wanting food goes.






Frodo,Pippin and Rosie-Roo
Now this lot we got when they were about three weeks old, and hand reared. They were originally a semi-feral litter of farm cats but as their mother was a useless queen (kept leaving poor Roo in front of the tractor) we took them off her. The vet and my mom were both skeptical about their survival, they had serious eye infections, coughs and were drastically undersized. Think I was the only one who wasn't convinced Roo was going to die, even at 8 weeks she wasn't the healthiest kitten around, I was also one of a tiny handful of people who could clearly see she was a gorgeous baby, not an ugly scrap of tufty fluff.
As a result of not being let out of my sight, and rarely out of my hoodie pockets for a few months her and I have the most amazing relationship. I get so much love off this tiny cat that if I cuddle one of the boys too much while she is there she goes off in a massive mood and won't talk to or sleep with me for days.

We've just come out of one of those little huffs,  they're not nice.

The two boys :D Frodo (on the right) has actually put on a lot more weight muscle since that was taken.

My Roo-baby. She's currently lying at the end of the bed, she gets annoyed when she has to share my lap with Jellybean. There is nothing at all wrong with naming my laptop.

And that's a selection of my fuzzies!

I'm typing over a cat, it's quite awkward

Well this week has knackered me, that's for sure. My knees are getting so bad that soon my only option will be to send myself to the glue factory. Even my shoulders are now getting to the point where OTHER PEOPLE can hear them. Seriously.

Second week of the official timetable at my new college and still loving it, although will admit I'd forgotten just how messy budgies are O.o
and there were about 20 of them to clean up after.

Cat on my lap is trying to make herself less of a hinderance to typing by being flat.

If I had a complaint, it'd be the unconventional timetable. It just really annoys me, we have more time out of lesson per day than in it. But I love the lake, and sitting by it watching the ducks, although with the weather turning a bit ickky I doubt I'll be out doors much.

On Wednesday I went to Blackpool to see the lights and eat ice cream in the torrential rain. Been there before, but that was for the national qualifiers a few years ago, and only saw the inside of a sports hall. It was really fun, ended up soaking and very cold, but bought a sweet shop's worth of yummies which made up for it.

Really need to stop eating so many cupcakes and sweets.
...Actually, that's probably why I feel like I have the past few days, on the down after a week or so long sugar rush.

So that was a late night,followed, very cleverly, by another. There was some odd german themed evening at the college bar, which was really, really fun. Up until then just about everyone I'd met was on my course, so it was a chance to socialise and get to know a wider range of farmers.
Although the love of tractors seems to be an across the board thing.
Discovered that two pint glasses are HEAVY and need to be held with both hands too. Oh, the cat has gone now.

Friday is the day that I'm now working on, so I get free weekends!  And there had to be a cat that was sick when I was nursing a hangover. Yay.

Just remembered, have a ton of promised posts that I haven't done for the four or five of you that read this, will get to those.

Yesterday I did something entirely new and will admit when I first heard what I was being  dragged to I was a bit reluctant.
We went to a gamer cafe and I watched my rather cool friends take part in a Yugioh tournament. It was really fun and I loved the people there, Everyone was really chatty and I made some amazing new friends, it was nothing like what I'd have expected at all. AwkwardGiraffe and I put a lot of thought into a foolproof, and very professional, gaming tactic. Unfortunately it wasn't really suitable considering the age of her opponent.  So that was all good.
What really messed with my head a bit for the first half hour or so was that the cafe is in the same place my old fencing club used to be, kept expecting to see the pistes or people I knew there.
Marshmallow fluff also contributed to the awesomeness of the day :)

Now, onto the promised posts!