How the rain falls and the stars shine

After the rain falls it smells of dirt and dust in the valleys of Nevada, of stone and of dead wood on the mountains.
In Germany, where I first noticed the different sents places can have, the air smelled sweetly of flowers nectar.
In Michigan, my home, though I love it so, has only smelled like dead and drowning worms to me in all but the most remote places that smell of dirt, pine, and a cool lake breeze.
I miss these places and their sents. Funny how much our memories can be triggered by them.

The stars shined brightest in Nevada, where when staying in Great Basin for three months and blessed with insomnia I could study them and their cycle with the moon. The full moon outshines the stars and illuminates the night. Creating a new monochromatic night of contrasting grey, black and white, a flashlight is not needed for nighttime exploration with the bats. As the moon wanes again, the stars come out to shine like nothing else to the new moon. They light up the sky that's finally theirs but leave the world in darkness. Reds and blues seen in the silver dance of the Milky Way stay only until the moon takes over again.

 ~~a tired wistful rambling of the mountains I now miss

Time for a New Job

     I loved working with animals at the wildlife clinic so much that I have decided to go into Zoology.
Wait a sec, the postman just got here with delivery from my community college, maybe it's that environmental associates I worked my butt off for? NOPE! It's a certificate in liberal arts that I didn't even ask for. I am getting tired of waiting for that decree. This was disappointing. Oh Well.
     Anyway, at the clinic, I loved doing intakes and figuring out the puzzle of what's wrong with this animal and doing the math to administer the proper amount of medication. So much so that I will endure more chemistry and biology classes in order to be able to work more with animals.

-Huh, apparently the certificate is also a Michigan Transfer Agreement thing...okay so I guess I did ask for that.-

      SO, I had been looking for a new job in my new world of animals. I'd been applying for veterinary assistant and kennel attendant jobs. I did find a wonderful job at an amazing animal shelter in the area that does everything they can to make sure the animals know they're loved until they find a new home. I get a daily pack of dogs that I am required to do certain activities with such as take them for walks, play with them outside and read to them in their kennels. They will know the tales of Harry Potter. I couldn't love the job and the people I work with more, even if things get a little crazy and I feel stressed, I can just sit in the kitten room or the fat cat room and get covered in floofs and relax.
      Classes have also started up again recently and I've been on kind of a Harry Potter kick lately and have been comparing my professors to those from the books based on teaching style. I have Binns for Pre-Calc, Lupin for German, and Russian McGonagall for my Biology class. Lots of homework out of classes is a little stressful but I am super excited to be looking into going to Northern Michigan University for Zoology, I have a tour scheduled in October. Even more exciting though, I found out that everything from my community college transfers (unlike The almighty University of Michigan cough cough). So I'm spending the next year taking more basic classes to get those out of the way. Whee.

UP Trip!

    Towards the end of July, I took a trip to the upper peninsula of Michigan to visit my friend Sidney who goes to Michigan Tech. The car ride drove me a bit crazy, I think I got a bit of cabin fever and I ran out of Audiobooks on the way back down. Also, I have Sprint lack-of-cell-service so I pretty much had no GPS, but that's okay because it's one of the signs that an adventure is about to start.
    On the way up I stopped at Canyon falls in the UP and it was really cool. I love rivers and waterfalls, I don't know, maybe it's a Michigan thing because we have a shit ton of them here.
     I got to Houghton and completely had no clue where her apartment was, I had no cell service, but what do ya know I pulled into the parking lot of the library. When in doubt, find the library as you can always steal the WiFi to message people with. This principle has never lead me astray.
     The next day we drove around the Keweenaw Peninsula (Island cough cough), and we also visited the Jam Pot to buy some jelly from some very cheerful monks. They lived in a monastery up the hill and they made a peaceful living by making and selling every kind of jelly, jam, marmalade, and fruit butter you could think of. They were even wearing dark mid evil robes.
     I was however saddened to learn a couple weeks later that there were some family friends having a camp out about two miles from the monks who were alumni of Michigan Tech had a huge pyrotechnics camp out. The main event was creating a giant volcano out of the earth, building a little village on the side and filling it with thermite. These are the guys I'm told who is responsible for several M-Tech school rules such as "no launching rockets off of the school roof." They also used to have a large bonfire with magnesium infused logs on the shore of Lake Superior. A cop came by and told them that they had to put it out and so they grabbed a log, threw it into the lake, and it kept burning. They said Sidney and I should join them next year.
     We had pasties for lunch and spent the weekend climbing on rocks on the lake shore, walking along beaches, playing on sandy playgrounds, and getting bitten up by bugs. Sidney also gave me a cool tour of the campus and I was astounded that they had 3-D printers in the library just for anyone to use! The tour gave me an idea though as I found out that two hours south was Northern Michigan University, one of the three colleges in Michigan that offer Zoology as a concentration for a biology major. On my trip back down, I stopped to poke around the campus in Marquette and really liked it. I stopped by the biology department and got flyers on the classes I need to take before heading back down.
       After the stress of two internships, (granted I quit the river survey one after June), It was a wonderful weekend of exploring with a friend I haven't seen in a while. I left feeling full of love and excitement for the potentials of the future.

Intakes

     People can be crazy sometimes. Honestly, I don't think it really matters what profession you're in; if you deal with people, you deal with crazy. Often growing up we hear the phrase, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say it." At the clinic this phrase can be adapted to, "If you are shocked into silence by what the hell someone just said, remaining silent with a pained smile is still okay." Most importantly because you must remember that everyone comes into the clinic with good intentions. For example, there was one woman who, bringing in a baby opossum, told me that last night to feed it before bringing it to us she fed it human breast milk. Then she showed me a video of the opossum lapping it from a syringe. I smiled weakly and had her fill out the intake form. Later when the assistant came in and looked at the paperwork she asked me, "I'm sorry does this for say she fed it human breast milk?" I stared at her with all seriousness, replying yes and she walked away muttering under her breath.

     Another notable intake was a juvenile opossum from a very elderly couple who had found it orphaned and had raised it like a pet. The man came in with it on his arm and told us the story of how his wife and he had become attached to the now very tame and friendly opossum. They felt bad taking him for the wild and were debating turning her in when 'a sign from the universe came.' This sign happened when the three of them (man, wife, opossum) were chilling on their porch and the opossum bolted across, caught a frog, ripped off its head and ate it. Fun fact: opossums are omnivores with thumbs just like us. They can also swim. We then told them that the opossum would be fine with us and if she was too friendly to release back into the wild that she would join our educational program opossums in the zoo. The man then wanted to go take his pet opossum on his arm on a tour of the zoo and we told him that would be a bad idea.

      

      Apparently, over the phone, a lot of people make huge species identification mistakes. For example, one person called in saying they found a bald eagle chick when it was really a tuxedo colored pidgin. A few times a year we get people calling saying they found injured golden eagles when in fact they have been either a red-tailed hawk or a chicken. So when I was there for the next golden eagle call, my supervisor rolled his eyes and said, "Just make sure it's not a duck."

      Overall, Most people come in caring very deeply for these animals that they have found and leave it in our care. I don't mean to seem condescending in this post, usually, it really is a great pick me up to know just how much some people are concerned for something so small.

Nevada- Salt Lake City

Flashback Friday!

(Again, I am aware that Salt Lake City is in Utah, not Nevada, "Nevada" is just the term I use to label all my adventures while I was living out of my car out west, and I was primarily in Nevada)

      I want to say that this was some time around the beginning of August, I want to say it was my first six-day break I got after our first week of the Johnson Lake Cabins Job. I went out there and met up with Dylan and one of her crewmates that she was taking to the airport there. (side note: There were two others from my crew at Salt Lake City at the time too, we met up with them twice, but they were kinda jerks so we didn't bother the rest of the time.)We found some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land to stay on, a peninsula in the Great Salt Lake, one over from Antelope Island, where we did not stay as we were poor. (Pro tip: If you need a free campsite out west get on freecampsites.net and look for anything that's owned by BLM. Those are government-owned public lands and are completely free and legal to stay on. just don't start a fire or some other stupid shit.) We slept on a very comfy sand dune, and the sky was so clear and full of stars that we could easily see several shooting stars and watch satellites make their way across the sky each night we spent there.

      After Dylan dropped off her crewmate at the airport, we spent the weekend exploring the city and eating at Dell Taco and Dunkin Doughnuts. Because we for once were in civilization. If you fellow easterners are wondering what a Dell Taco is, it is the glory that would be if Taco Bell actually tried. They are a fast food taco place that's actually good, had fresh guacamole and salsa, with actual beans and meat that isn't the mystery ground up grease that Taco Bell has.

      Dylan and I quickly became friends over the weekend that started with a $5 concert by I don't remember, at the something-or-other-park. The music was OK, not really my type, but it was nice to just relax in the soft grass. By another very nice park that looked like it was between the state legislative and judiciary buildings there was this huge fancy fountain. The picture to the right refers too this when it says "No bathing in fountain allowed." How was this such a problem outside two massive state government buildings that they had to put it on the sign? People are weird.

Look how happy this guy is!

       We also had great fun exploring the Universities massive natural history museum, all with real fossils dug up right there in Utah. I really just mostly remember the fossils from it cause that's always one of the really cool parts of a history museum that everybody loves. Another exhibit that I really enjoyed was on the top floor was a circular room with pictures, artifacts and at least a hundred stories of Native Americans that had been local to the southwest. There was also a video with stories of current Native American culture. The view from the roof of the museum was also amazing. The university was on a high hill on the outside edge of Salt Lake City, from there you could see the whole city. OH, and there was a temporary exhibit set up that was all about shared DNA and genetics, that was also really cool, and the lobby ad banner for it was all like, "Did you know you're 40% banana?"

"Eeeeyyy"

       We also visited the Universities botanical Gardens that day, they were absolutely lovely and we almost walked in on a wedding going on in the rose garden. There was a nice kid's garden too that Dylan and I had fun playing in, and trails that went up into the mountains from the gardens. We didn't follow those very far as I did not trust myself to be able to go on a successful hike there with no shade, limited water, and in 95ish degree heat. We ate our Dell Taco lunch in a pretty patio area there and I don't know how I only have one picture from the whole garden. It's not even that great a photo, so I'm just gonna throw in a dinosaur here from the Natural History Museum.

      In the evenings we retreated to the BLM land peninsula and reassured each other that no, neither of us are in fact crazy, she missed trees too, and she also had to deal with some frustrating crew mates. Dylan was from Chicago originally, and we bonded over how different everything was out west compared to the ideas and lifestyles we were used too. (i.e. the only two radio stations available on the road between Great Basin and Ely was a conservative talk radio with and insane host and religious country music. I can't stand country music.) We also had similar views on watching the world, and that how animals interact with you has meaning.

      One morning I woke up on the dune and saw some odd dark clouds low over the salt lake from the direction of Antelope Island. Bridget and I thought, "huh, that's some weird fog." It wasn't until we saw the news story at the Dunkin doughnuts that we stopped at for breakfast that we were informed Antelope Island had a forest fire that had been going on for ten hours. The previous night we had debated going there to camp, as it might be nicer and more interesting, but had decided against it as we were cheap college students and it would have cost money. It was a little freaky knowing that the fire would have started only an hour after we would have fallen asleep. 

       That day we visited the Leonardo Museum, so called after Leonardo Da Vinci. They had various sections of the museum dedicated to art, illusion, science, and humanitarianism. They had a conservation of water section,and a kids area that had a programming video game that Dylan tried out. I believe her reaction was along the lines of "Why is this so hard, I can't figure it out, this is meant for kids?" They were also working on building an aeronautics portion of the museum at the time. there were also these floaty feathery things hanging all up the staircases, and we finally found the display, explaining it we found that they were artificially created single cell organism robots that were able to process and lightly respond to changes in their environment. I have no clue how it worked.

      I left Salt Lake City having made an invaluable friend. I have no idea how I would have gotten through the summer without having her to tell me that I'm not crazy. For that trip on, I visited her in Ely as often as I could, both of us needing the newfound friendship to help us rant and regain sanity over tacos.

"Floaty feathery things hanging form the ceiling"

Sing It All Away

      Last Thursday I attended the most fun and amazing concert I have ever been to, the main feature being Walk Off The Earth. They are one of my all-time favorite bands, they do covers as well as amazing original songs. The first one that I heard was 'Gang of Rhythm,' from their YouTube music video that I've posted to the right. All of their music just makes me want to get up, sing and dance to the good vibes- and that's exactly what everyone at the concert was done.

     I went with my friend Dylan (whom I met in Nevada at that redneck bathtub boat racing festival at cave lake state park), who was less familiar with the band and was blown away by their use of forks in a coffee mug as an instrument. It sounds crazy, but it works. And it's brilliant. She also greatly enjoyed the massive amount of ukuleles on stage, there must have been at least seven- those things were flying everywhere. There was also a stone bunny with an eyepatch and at least 10 kazoos distributed around the stage. They didn't use the stone bunny as an instrument, it was just decor on stage. I feel the need to point this out mostly because with this band you never know.
      All of the members were obviously having a great time. Sarah, the female singer of the group looked at least seven months pregnant and was giving full energy, jumping on and off of platforms, and having a blast with the rest of them. It was pretty badass, and I bet that baby is gonna be born ready to rock out.
       Beard Guy, the always expressionless, stoic guy in the band was still as entertaining as in the music videos, staring you down while playing some fun instrument. In another of my favorite videos, he breaks plates on the beat and that works too. I thought the best instrument he had on tap at the concert was this giant, absolutely brilliant didgeridoo. At one point, beard guy came on stage, face inscrutable as ever, and raised his arms and lowered them with the volume of the crowd. When he got us silent a few girls from the back of the concert hall screamed, "we love you beard guy!" at this, his neutral facade faded for a brief quirk of a laugh at the corner of his mouth. If you saw more music videos you'd understand more why this was amusing. or maybe I'm just to easily amused. That could be it too.
        Overall it was an amazing concert, with wonderful feel-good energy. I am so glad about how busy my life has been that I was able to go and enjoy myself, singing and dancing to music that has been such a big part of relaxing me and improving my mood everywhere I go. These are the songs that you roll down your windows to in the summer, singing along at the top of your voice and forgetting all your worries.

Germany - Kletterwald

Flashback Friday!

      Kletterwald translates to 'Climbing Forest', and it is exactly, or maybe more than it sounds like. Essentially you are 20-30ft up in the air, (sometimes more) and there are platforms on each tree. Between the platforms are a variety of obstacles that you traverse while on a zip line. The obstacles can be anything from zip lines, Tarzan swings, tight ropes, rolling logs, vaulting a gap to riding in a bucket, bridging a gap with a  trapeze swing, climbing over suspended picnic tables and walls.

       It is a hell of a lot of fun if you find a place with easy to use equipment, and that isn't expensive. The courses in Germany had us on a zip line above our heads the whole time so we didn't have far to fall, others that I've been on have the two clip system that you have to clip into and out of each course on the line and it's just a pain in the butt. Yet another instance of Germany being better at something than America: first of all, in Germany, it's about 11 Euros for three hours of tomfoolery at these places, in America, it's about $80 for three hours because of insurance and some stuff like that. Also, American treetop courses I've been on seem to be a lot more focused on strength level whereas in Germany, while the obstacles do require strength, also have a focus on coordination and problem-solving. I liked this much better for the same reason I enjoy Assassin's Creed, you don't always have to be strong if you're smart about what you're given. Sometimes the right leverage or strategy
is all you need.

    I went to this climbing forest on both trips, though I only have pictures from when I was 16, as that's when Emma's mom had to drive us there so we had her to take pictures.
     I did briefly get stuck on the pole vaulting obstacle as I underestimated how much force I needed to get across. I wound up stuck hovering in the middle for a bit.
    It was one of those thrilling activities that you never knew how much it took out of you until you felt the exhaustion wash over you afterward, and the feel-good, I-accomplished-something-soreness the next day.

Release

      All of the animals in the clinic are under a great deal of stress. When wild animals are locked up, they often panic from a predator/prey relationship and being in pain from their injury never helps. It's why you can't rehab adult deer, they will panic so much that they will slam themselves against the sides of their enclosure until they die. Cottontails can die just from the stress of being enclosed, even the babies. Baby cottontails will be doing just fine and could be just a couple days from release until you come in the next morning to find them dead. We do have ways of trying to lower the stress, we don't handle the animals more than necessary, we keep the cages covered, and we aren't supposed to baby talk the animals. A couple of the interns still do, and it's annoying as hell. (side note: Why would hell be annoying? There's no WiFi. No really, my dad freaked out over it)
      In training, this is how our supervisor put it: If you are locked in the attic of a serial killer, listening to every sound and wondering if it's the last thing you hear, then the door opens and the killer starts baby talking you while stroking your hair, would that be comforting? Hell. No. That's what it feels like for an adult wild animal to be handled and talked to.
      I'd like to think that the stress is all worth it when the animal finally gets released with a healed wing, spinal injury, or another ailment. Every other week or so, a sheet goes up with the case numbers of the animals, and the places for them to be released. Often everyone just takes an animal when the location of release is on their way home. We do our best to release them as close to where a person found them as possible because they may already have established territories. Or with turtles, they have a GPS in their head that no matter how far they are from their home pond, no matter how many busy roads they have to cross to get back to it, will make them try to get back.
      The first animal I released was an opossum with an amputated tail from frostbite. It had a large cauliflower stub in place of its tail. I walked off the road into the woods ways before shaking it out of the carrier. It immediately started waddling back towards the road we just came from and I stomped around, making loud growly noises to make it go the other way. As I drove off I noticed three hawks circling the field next to the forest I had just released it in. Whether it lived or gets eaten, an animal was still helped.
      Yesterday I set out to release a goose that had had a spinal injury, and who was understandably pissed at being forcibly put in a carrier. He had been with us a very long time, and I was sure he would be happy to finally be on his way. He had been found in a graveyard next to a lake, and there were a lot of people as the graveyard was next to a playground and the whole area was like a community park to hang out and go swimming. I had to shake the goose out of its cage and it fell into the water. Once it got its bearings, it honked what I can only imagine was a death sentence at me and started paddling my way with a fierce determination. That's when I got out of there, sure it would be fine just as soon as it found a new flock.
       Driving away with my windows down for the hot summer breeze, my music blasting with the clear blue sky ahead I thought, today is a good day to be set free.

Nevada - Training and the Colorado River

Flashback Friday!

(This happened way before the Zion story did. this was my first week in Nevada)

    Training week in the Spring Mountains outside Vegas had a lot of 'what did I sign up for' thoughts too it. We were told to meet for training at the Mojave Office outside Vegas. It was small and seemed to be primarily used for desert tortoise internship..things. I don't know exactly other than they tracked the tortoises, that wasn't my project. Anyway, we were told to pack for camping with rain gear and layers, and we all also packed expecting to be in the desert the whole time. After the first day of powerpoints telling us we can't try to get other crewmates to worship the sun or drink alcohol with our logo showing, we were immediately shipped off to a campsite at 6,000 ft altitude in the Spring Mountains for the rest of our training.

Beautiful views and my bloody useless tent

     It seemed fine at first, no cooler than a fine autumn day in Michigan, but I quickly learned that nothing could stop the unrelenting icy wind blowing through my tent and useless sleeping bag. Over the week my tent collapsed on me several times and often I would just leave it. I got no sleep all week and broke down several times. Trying to hide it from my crewmates, I often found myself wandering on paths further up into the mountains to be alone and to try and figure out why I was having such a hard time. At 19, I was the youngest there, but I refused to let age be a factor as it's never stopped me before.

     We, the Great Basin Crew, had our training with the Las Vegas crew. In total, we started with eleven people on the crews and at the end of training, three people had quit. By the end of the summer, two more would join and quit the Vegas crew, but they had a tough gig and had to deal with the butterfly people so I don't really blame them.
      After training week, our employer set up our crew with a nice hotel for one night so that we could shower and have a provided breakfast before finding our own way on the weekend. I woke up there at six am and snuck out of my room into the deserted hallway so I wouldn't disturb the others with my crying. All I could wonder was what was wrong with me? why was I having a hard time? Part of me knew I wasn't at home with the forests so dry and full of dead trees that it seemed as if I was walking through groves of driftwood. Someone from the Vegas crew found me in the hallway and gave me small comfort in that hey, I was still there wasn't I?
      Many of my answers came later that day when the crew decided to hop over to Arizona to cool off in the Colorado river on our first day off. Seeing the water made me inexplicably happy and I raced in, ignoring the painful cobbles on my feet and with out thinking I dived in. The water shocked me, it felt colder than Superior. I broke the surface with a gasp to see that everyone on shore was quiet and staring at me, if I had cared to notice before I would have seen that everyone there only dared to go ankle deep into the icy water. A boom box played somewhere- the only thing filling the silence until I laughed and said, "Oh yeah! I'm from Michigan baby!"
      That's when I realized that I really am from Michigan, I love my lush forests and ever present water. One of my crew mates had scoffed at the people who had quit, saying that it was hard labor in the desert, what did they expect?! That had always stung me as I hadn't known what to expect myself. I knew deserts were hot and dry, but had really only seen pictures, I never imagined I would have such difficulty adjusting to such a harsh environment. I could do all the required 5 miles a day with a 35 lb pack no problem in Michigan, it was just too bad that I had no mountains to practice on.
      What was that saying? I think it was, "How can a fish who's only ever know the current of his own stream ever imagine the vastness of the ocean?"
      Update: I found the full quote, "If a fish lives his whole life in this river, does he know the river's destiny? No! Only that it runs on and on, out of his control. He may follow where it flows, but he cannot see the end. He can not imagine the ocean," (Jeong Jeong). A little more dramatic than what I was going for but I guess I followed my stream and couldn't imagine the desert until I got there.

Mouse House

     In the mouse house, we keep and breed live mice for some of the animals in rehab. Sometimes the animal just eats them better than say soak cat food, other times we are raising something that was orphaned and they need to know how to hunt. We currently have four fox kits that need to learn this, and a great blue heron that also needs live mice. I was sent to the mouse house to get 12 live mice for them.

     Catching them from their fish tanks was not easy, and I slid them down a cardboard tube to contain them. I had fed live mice to things before and had joked with the cardboard tube of mice, "If I cast the killing curse with this, would the mice inside die or would they be the murderers?" This time I had more guilt as the chooser of the slain. I do not envy the Morrigan or the Valkyries. One did manage to wiggle his way onto the floor and feeling that he had earned his triumph I let him go, then I dropped two more and said, "sorry guys only one free pass." But then four escaped the heron's enclosure so I had to go back for more and this time put them in the bucket.

     All of my guilt however dissipated when we let loose the eight mice into the fox kit's enclosure and stayed to make sure they hunted. one of them wiggled out of his burrow and joyously pounced on the mice, throwing them into the air and killing them. It was absolutely adorable and I was so proud. I silently tried to compare it to humans, in that maybe supervillain moms feel a slight twinge of guilt at choosing the things for their child to practice slaying but probably have this same happy moment, knowing their kids will be able to make it someday in the wild. I then decided for the 8th time, that day, that I probably shouldn't have kids.

Germany - Castle Ruins

Flashback Friday!

      I have been to Germany twice now, once for a month as an exchange student when I was 16, and again for six weeks when I was 18. Both times I visited with my exchange sister, Emma, the castle in Muizenberg. (probably completely butchered the spelling of the name but Google isn't being helpful right now.) This Castle is in complete ruins and is a hell of a lot of fun to climb on.

      The Images on the right were when we were 16, and I really miss that purple sweater. I think someone in my Gym class the next year stole it. On a separate part of the castle, I learned how flexible I was when I was running down the side of the wall and sidestepped my foot, putting full force onto my bent ankle instead of my foot. Not wanting my Emma's mother to worry, I played it cool, sat for a minute until the pain dulled a bit and then walked it off.
      Climbing actual rock walls was a lot more fun than going rock climbing on an artificial
rock wall. The hand and foot holds were much larger and it was easier to climb. It was by no means safer though. That's the cool thing about Germany: people don't have to worry about getting sued for obvious 'at your own risk' activities. In America, I'm sure the whole place would be off limits, or I don't know, destroyed for more condos like everything else here.
      The second time we went when we were 18 (me with short purple hair this time). There were a bunch of kids with foam swords and hats pretending to be dragons, knights, and princesses. It was one of the few times I didn't mind kids as it made me happy to see them able to unplug and have fun with their imaginations just like I did in the woods behind our house with my older sister.

     This time Emma and I also tried to practice more par-core tumbles, with moderate success. We started first just doing it on the grass then Emma tried doing it off a short wall. I, however, lamed out as even in both of our inexperienced states, she had more practice than me. Their gym classes actually have a portion of the class where you do par-core on practice mats and I am still insanely jealous. Needless to say, we were both very sore the next day. Actually, a lot of things that we got up to we were sore the next day. Maybe it should be a saying, "If you're not sore the next day, you weren't really up to any shenanigans." ...or something. I don't know, I think I'm just rambling now so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. Happy Friday!  

That Squirrel.

      Remember that spinal Injury squirrel that I was talking about in my Lost and Found blog post? Well, he's a little shit. His daily cleaning and feeding chart reports that he has gotten out almost every day and on a few days someone has just written "insane."
      So I found a good method for cleaning his cage where I catch him in a net first and then clean his cage. this worked perfectly the first day I tried it and I was way too proud of myself. I had let four other squirrels out that day, but I had caught them all within 10 minutes of them escaping, and it wasn't that spinal injury squirrel so according to everyone else I had accomplished something. Goals.
      My victory over the insane squirrel, however, was short lived as the next day when I was putting the squirrel back, his foot got stuck in the net. As I reached in with a leather-gloved hand, he immediately clung to my hand and started biting harder than any other animal who'd bitten me. Honestly, I think his life-force is fueled by spite. He moved up my arm and bit where the glove stopped, then with his foot still stuck jumped out of the cage to my other hand that just had a latex glove and bit that too. I shoved him and the net back in the cage and ran to our bathroom and scrubbed my hands with soap, then iodine, then soap again and used a crap ton of band-aids to cover it all up because you do not want exposed flesh wounds in an animal clinic. I was just fine until someone started fussing over me and asking if I was okay and then my brain went shit I need to panic and I cried a bit. I did some more work, then filled out an incident report and was told by my supervisor's supervisor to take the rest of the day off and to get a tetanus shot.
       The first walk-in clinic I went to laughed at me and the nurse at the front desk told me, "We can't just give you a tetanus shot." as if it was the holy grail she continued, "You have to have all these forms and authorization to treat and workers comp..." and she looked at me very definitively like I needed to leave and as I did so they laughed at me even more and that's when I went and cried in my car while texting my supervisor. She informed me that as an unpaid intern that I counted as a volunteer and did not qualify for workers comp, instead, they were just going to pay the co-pay of whatever the insurance didn't cover.
       I then drove to a different clinic that had much more friendly and willing to help staff and the whole place looked brighter too. The nurse and doctor all laughed with me at my crazy squirrel story and it was a great experience.

       I still love working at the clinic and couldn't ask for better co-interns and nicer supervisors, I still want to look into going into zoology. I'm not mad at the squirrel or anything, he was just being a squirrel.....and all of this was still better than waiting tables and dealing with people.

Nevada - Getting Lost in Zion

Flashback Friday!

      First, I  know Zion is in Utah, but for the most part, I was living out of my car in Nevada, so that's what I refer to events in my life as while I was in the conservation corps out there.
 
      The weekend before fourth of July, my crew from Great Basin NP met another crew that was employed by the forest service in Ely, Nevada at a Redneck Bathtub Boat Racing Festival at Cave Lake State Park. The Ely crew invited us to go backpacking with them in Zion over fourth of July weekend, three from the Ely crew, and three from my crew went.
     The next weekend we met the other crew out there and they, along with one from my crew went backpacking while (let's call her Amy) and I hung out separately around the park because our job was hard labor in the mountains for 10 hours a day and we wanted a break.
      Saturday I explored and found just how beautiful the park was. Around 2ish I was about to bite into this giant burger I got from the lodge cafe on some nice soft grass when I got a text from Amy. Essentially, the other people were backpacking up the 7-mile trail to the campsite Saturday and then going the rest of the three miles the next day and Amy was like hey why don't we just go up the three miles to meet them at the campsite, I agreed three miles seemed reasonable. I wrapped the rest of my burger in a bandanna and headed to meet up with Amy.
      We packed enough supplies for one night and decided to cowboy camp it, leaving our tents in the car.  Amy and I thought we were prepared for a nice quick hike, except that we accidentally went five miles instead of three. The biting flies were horrendous, and I had never seen cheerful, happy Amy so pissed off when she was at these flies. We were on the trail for probably the first mile, but then we saw the first backpacking campsite that was not on the trail but a little ways off. We, having difficulty following the trail and not knowing that the campsite wasn't actually on the trail walked straight up an old dried up riverbed, hauling ourselves over boulders, and desperately following the footprints of some unfortunate souls who had apparently made the same mistake. It was a hard hike/climb with our packs in the unrelenting heat of 5pm.
      At one point I hear the rattle of a snake ahead where Amy is and her scream "SHIT!" Followed by the sound of her scrambling away and she called back to me "don't come here there's a rattlesnake!" I then proceeded to go exactly where the rattlesnake was and she screamed at me to move, she could see it under a rock. I hastily hauled myself up the side of the gully to get away, acquiring many more impressive scratches and bruises in the process.
      Eventually, the canyon walls got higher and we decided it might be best to find a way out. The footprints agreed and led us to a spot where we could climb up the wall without too much difficulty. Once on top of the canyon, the view was amazing, we also saw some people on the opposite canyon wall and together we screamed "MARCO!" They replied with POLO echoing across the canyon. We yelled that we were lost, and they replied that they had found the trail, apparently they were the footprints we had been following. We hurried up to the next empty backpacking campsite to meet up with one from their group who showed us where we needed to go.
      We finally made it to the campsite as everyone else was settling down to boil water on a tiny camp stove for instant Spanish rice and ramen. we sat in a circle and talked, I pulled out my giant hamburger to finally chow down and everyone looked at me with envy. As if I had a comical gag bag they asked if I had more when I did not. The angry jerk (as I later learned) of the Ely crew pulled out a board game from his pack called 'Who's Hitler?' It was actually more fun than it sounds. It was essentially Mafia or Werewolf, but with more strategy and less random lynching...And with slightly more Hitler.
       As the sun started to set, we sat on some boulders along a canyon wall and watched the breathtaking colors of the earth be illuminated one last time as the stars slowly came out. Someone on the Ely crew pulled out an Orange Fanta bottle filled with an odd brownish liquid. They passed it around all taking a sip and when it came to me I remember thinking wow this is really weird ice tea. Then I took my sip and thought wow, this is not ice tea. That was the first time I tried fireball whiskey. We each had just a bit before it was gone, and we each found a spot to fall asleep on the warm desert ground, wrapped in our blankets under the bright stars.
      I slowly opened my eyes the next morning, for once enjoying the cool, peace and quiet of the desert instead of struggling in the sweltering heat. I heard the loud helicopter sound of a humming bird nearby who came into sight, hovered over the girl from the Ely crew, Dylan, for a moment and flew away. I had seen a lot of humming birds out here, often in the morning or when I was board they'd show up and I'd wander off after them, always leading me to something interesting. After it flew off, the girl woke up and I said, "Hey you just had a hummingbird above your head." She replied, "really? I had always wondered if they were my spirit animal." This struck a chord with me, and I tucked it away for later.
     The rest of the camp was starting to get up now and roll up their bed mats. I reached in my pack to find my breakfast and the other guy from the Ely crew gave me a warning glare and said, "I swear if you pull out a fucking breakfast burrito..." I pulled out a small packet of oatmeal before he finished the sentence and he nodded before looking away.
I laughed internally.
      We all hiked down the correct trail that Amy and I were supposed to originally go up, and I have to say, it was a great trail! beautiful views, less biting flies, no rattlesnakes, and an actual trail. We got back to the cars then headed to the tourist town of Zion for coffee and a real breakfast. The same group headed off to go on another longer backpacking trip, and Amy and I did our own thing. She hung out in the tourist town, and I went to go hike the Narrows.
      The Narrows are a narrow canyon bottom carved by the Virgin River. It was insanely crowded and I wanted to make it at least as far up as it would take to leave the large crowds behind. It was absolutely thrilling, and the water reminded me of my home in Michigan which I sorely missed.
      The park had made some money renting out weird socks, special hiking shoes and walking sticks to people to help them navigate the river. I had plenty of confidence, using my Merrell Minimalist shoes in place of water shoes, and my whole childhood of experience wading up rocky rivers. It was some of the most fun I had had out west, and it reminded me of the lower Tahquamenon Falls and Pictured Rocks back home.
      I laughed to myself at the pleasure of feeling cool water on a hot day once again, and at everyone else who was out of their element when I for once felt at home. Big strong guys with their shirts off complained that it was like walking on

bowling balls before falling in as I confidently strode by them. Seeing this an older guy with biker tattoos nodded at me as I went passed and I felt like a badass.
     The Narrows was one of the most beautiful places that I had the pleasure of visiting out west, and I hope that I will get back to explore again someday. I think in all I spent about four hours in the Narrows, and still it seemed to short a time before I had to march back.

Amanda's Opossum

      My friend Amanda found a baby opossum on the side of the road, and through some person, it made its way to the clinic where I work. Amanda when she next saw me told me to say hi to her opossum for her and I said that we had a crap ton of opossums and I'd have no idea which was hers. (by crap ton I mean we have 20% more than our record high of last year) I privately concluded that I would just say hi to all 150 of them for her. They'd probably like the love, or I don't know maybe just hiss because they're opossums and can be ungrateful teenagers.
      This became unnecessary when I needed to go to the bathroom one day (which is no longer full of fawns), which is also our storage closet and when I pull down my pants to sit down I look up at the tall metal cabinet across from me and at the top where the slightly open doors barely meet, is a fucking baby opossum. Seven feet up, no clue how it got there, I hurriedly pulled my pants back up and grabbed the opossum taking it back to where all the babies were kept in baskets. To our count though, all the opossums were accounted for so I put him in a basket that was labeled 'found this one in the laundry, don't know where it goes,' and put an additional note saying, 'the smaller one was found in the bathroom.'
      When I went back to the bathroom to actually use it this time, I thought oh my god it's a sign, that has got to be Amanda's opossum. I said hi and told him he's probably not bouncy enough for aerial stunts.

Hallucinating Opossums

      At the clinic, it is required for us to work three 8-hour shifts a week. I usually do mine in consecutive days to save time for my other internship and at the time that I signed up for my shifts, it just seemed efficient. Though, it seems that for the three days that I am working there, I eat, sleep and breath animals and it has truly gotten to my subconscious.

      Last night around 3am I gained just enough consciousness to realize that I really needed to pee. I normally sleep with my fluffy cat cuddled on the pillow next to my head, though in my still dreamscape ruled state, all I could manage to think was, 'wow this is a really nice opossum, he's not hissy at all and is so much softer than usual!' and I pet him a few times, before I decided that I really did have to pee. I then proceeded to edge my way off the bed as quietly as possible, careful not to disturb the bedding or move anything as I was convinced that on the other half of my queen sized bed that I did not sleep on was an array of baby animals in their baskets trying to sleep peacefully. I swear I saw all of the cages so clearly that I could paint a picture. 

     When I got back from the bathroom I could not figure out if there actually were or were not cages on my bed, so I snuck back in the same way just to be safe and went back to cuddling with my opossum. It was tangible, I could prove it was there. Though I must admit that a grown opossums willingness to cuddle should be a sure tip-off that I am hallucinating over-romanticized wildlife.

The After Hours Squirrel

      Approximately three hours after the clinic had closed and we had long stopped taking animals, the two other interns and I discovered that the front door hadn't been locked when a pair of older women came in with a cat litter pail. The three of us walked out of the infirmary into the lobby and the women with the pail said they had found a squirrel under a tree being circled by birds. None of us moved, we were caught like a deer in the headlights. Or four fawns in a bathroom. Eventually, I spoke, realizing that neither of the others were going too, I tried to say that we were closed, we had stopped taking animals hours ago, and we were just interns and were not trained yet in how to intake anything that wasn't just orphaned. The women replied that they both had cats and dogs at home and that the squirrel wouldn't last the night there, so they had planned on leaving the squirrel on the porch- right under the "don't leave animals on the porch where predators can get them, come back in the morning" sign. realizing that we had to just do our best, and one of the other interns grabbed the mammal intake form while the other intern and I took the squirrel into the exam room.
     The squirrel was alive, alert, awake, and enthusiastic to bite a finger. We had all done standard intakes before, and I had watched a supervisor assess a blue jay with the same type of injury a few weeks before. The squirrel indeed had a lower spinal injury, it's back legs and tail were limp. I remembered the pain killer we had used on the jay, and according to the chart, it was good for mammals too. Seeing that the other interns weren't moving to do anything I picked up the squirrel and told someone to put the basket on the scale and tare it so it could be weighed for the proper dose. I filled out all the observation paperwork and then called our supervisor who had long since gone home to double check that I was correct about the medicine. She affirmed I should use Medacam and told me the standard dose for an adult red squirrel. I remembered how the other supervisor had prepared the syringe for the blue jay and did the same thing. With another intern holding the feisty guy in two gloved hands, I was able to give him the painkiller, and we could put him in a proper enclosure.
     I had tried to tell that women that we were just interns, that I didn't know what I was doing.
     I guess I lied.

Lost and Found

     We have an animal that escapes from its cage at least once a day. Usually, we fail to find it right after the initial escape and we just have to make sure that we spread the word of, 'oh, by the way, there's a fox squirrel out in the raptor room somewhere.' I'd clean the cage out anyway and mark on their paperwork that today he got out. The next day I'd come in, and check the paperwork had an encouraging "found" written on it. Since then, this specific squirrel has been lost and found at least three times now. That's teamwork people. Update: According to his paperwork he apparently has a spinal injury, but he seems fucking fine to me. 2nd more honest update: I accidentally let him out again today, though it was less a sneaking out and more of him flinging himself at my face as soon as I cracked the door open.
       I've also learned that too late that you must check the dirty laundry bins for hiding escaped animals, as on my second day I had no Idea that there was a juvenile opossum lose and loaded a pile of scrubs into the wash. I only found him after I was moving it into the dryer and my supervisor commented, ''wow that's a clean opossum," and, "at least we know where the third one is now." I had some moral guilt over this but decided to tell everyone about it so they could learn from my mistakes because that's teamwork too. Now everyone knows to check laundry before washing it, and it has saved the life of many an opossum.
      I have only encountered one animal that has been smart enough to know that yes, he could escape, but his cage was where the food was so he might as well go back. I walked into the songbird/squirrel room one morning only to come to a halt, trapped in a frozen staring contest with a large grey squirrel tensely perched on top of his cage. I didn't move, and slowly she went back into his cage for a peanut, and I closed the cage behind him whereupon I discovered how loose the door was and that he was just kicking the door open to escape. I put some clothespins on the door to prevent further shenanigans and told everyone I saw what happened and not to remove the clothespins. Somehow, someone didn't get the memo and went, 'why the hell are these here?' and kept removing said clothespins. We may have some great teamwork, but sometimes it just feels like we are breaking down from the inside.

Squeaky Clean

    The older women who volunteer at the clinic on Sunday mornings "Just don't do squirrels." One is afraid of letting them out, and the other is afraid of getting bitten, so, on my first Sunday I rolled up my sleeves to clean the adult squirrel cages myself. I had only dealt with the baby's until then, who are very nice, don't bite, and yes, they're still crazy and might suck each other's penises if they don't think you fed them enough, but they don't have sex when you try to clean the cage.

     Squirrel sex sounds like two dog squeaky toys are rapidly being pushed together over and over, honestly, the only thing that hints that its animal's not squeaky toys is the occasional high pitched growling. This, as you may imagine, can be very distracting when trying to get out old bedding from underneath them. So if you ever find yourself in this situation, I suggest throwing some shelled peanuts at them, as I have learned that squirrels will immediately stop hooking up for a snack break. This brings to mind the goals of all living things- to reproduce and to save/obtain energy. Obviously, one of these is more important than the other, these are life lessons here people.

     

Out of Order

     There is exactly one bathroom in the wildlife clinic, and you can't use it. It's very annoying when someone comes in to drop off an animal and says oh I'm just going to use your bathroom quick and they try to go in before you can stop them. It's mostly inconvenient because it's also a storage closest and also it's where we keep the fawns. Until there's enough to keep each other company in the barn, we don't just have them in the bathroom all summer, that would be crazy.
      I did have the pleasure of trying to change the papers and blankets for them in the bathroom, which is very difficult because fawns are very friendly and easily tamed, so when raising orphaned ones to be released into the wild you have to minimize contact and completely ignore them sucking on your ear in an attempt for food every time you bend over to pick up their old bedding.
     I'm going to sidetrack here because I think it relates; back when I was on a labor crew in Nevada, we had this job that was an eight-day backpacking trip on a mountain repairing some log cabins. Turns out, you cant cathole rock so we had to relieve ourselves in bags for eight days and hike it back down with us. Anyway, one of the crew leaders had this spot that was privet where she liked to do her business, and she couldn't poop for three days because every time she was all ready to go a pheasant would come out of a bush and just stare at her. We suspected that it knew this was when she was vulnerable.
      And that's why I honestly don't think anyone would be able to use the bathroom for its intended purpose anyway, as you might get poop shy with four fawns looking at you, nibbling your knees and wondering if you have food.

Baby Owls

WARNING: I chop up mice in this one...
We have some baby screech owls in the clinic right now that are absolutely adorable. like small beaky puff balls that will make odd clicking noises at you for raw meat. I think the worst part of anything in the clinic would be cutting up the mice for these guys. First, you cut off their tails, then you slice open their stomach, fold them inside out and cut out their guts. If they are young enough, you also have to skin them, and after that, you have to cut the mouse into tiny bite-sized pieces. (Pro tip- when cutting the head of a mouse in half, for the love of god do it lengthwise. otherwise, the brains squish out the back of the head in a tube of liquid goo.) 
This is the exact reason I never took any anatomy classes.

Not the Best and Not the Worst

     When a new animal comes in we have to evaluate procedures that I am quickly learning. We check for dehydration, alertness, broken bones, head trauma, mites, and obvious parasites. We weigh the animals and get them comfortable as quickly as possible. After the initial quick exam, we tell the person who brought the animal in how they're doing/ what we think is wrong. Then after some more paperwork, we do a more thorough examination.
     I helped examine a Blue Jay with a lower spine injury from getting hit by a car and learned how to administer the proper amount of pain medication.
     

     There are tons of animals that come in every day, and unfortunately, not all of them make it. Initially, I thought it would be hard to deal with these situations; from baby bunnies that die of stress to a woodchuck someone found starved in a cage- we have to bag, label, throw in the freezer and set aside their paperwork for my supervisor who has to report everything to the state.
     This is not as bad as it sounds, I am having less of an issue with it than I thought I would. I know that the people who bring in the animals do the best they can, and once they're in our care, we do the best we can. Sometimes stress or their injury just gets to them and there's nothing more we can do, it's just part of life.
     I did learn how to resuscitate a baby cottontail, It was cold when it was brought in, and its eyes weren't even open yet. I gently rubbed its chest with my finger as he gasped briefly back to life. It lived for a whole 20 minutes more. Not much, but it still felt like I did something.

The Internships

     With this internship, I will successfully graduate with associates in Environmental Sciences. A wildlife clinic may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you get a degree in my field, but I'm hoping that It will help answer the 'what comes next?' question on my mind. I have no idea where to go next, or what 4-year degree I want. It is a little odd though, working this internship with my little Environmental Science associates while the other interns are four-year students in their Junior and Senior Year of Zoology decrees. Everyone is nice though, and we are all in this together, learning as we go! 

     On the side, I am also doing an internship with an ...Environmental activist group? I'm not entirely sure how to describe them with discretion. My primary Job is taking readings, measurements, pollution hazard analysis, and data collections that help tell us about the health of various streams in an area. It's significantly less eventful and you will mostly read about the wildlife clinic internship.