Ashley locked me in with the servals....twice!

---

Well it's my last day on hyaenas! I'm gunna miss my little friends 😞 We took them for a walk, since I'm leaving, I got to walk them, they did really well. They sniff everything but they are still well behaved, you just have to guide them in the right direction. I was walking Shanzi, and it was a little difficult because she lost her collar, I don't know how she got it off, but she did so I had to wrap the leash around itself in order to walk her. I just had to be careful how I walked because I couldn't let it get to loose or get in front of her because she could easily wiggle through and run away which would clearly not be any good. Once that was finished, we were about to walk up to do the servals, but Tams got a call saying if we wanted to see the big lion feeding to head down now, so that's what we did instead. Nebbie and Thor are two of the most gorgeous lions I've ever seen. Nebbie is the father of the 4 cubs we have now and also the father of Thor. Thor is eight year old white lion with a beautiful mane, he looks like he could be in a pantene commercial.

The feeding was cool. They are a bit spoiled though because they don't really go straight to the food, they are easily distracted, so they are clearly not too hungry. Sophie told me a story about how one time, Ashley stood inside the enclosure with the animals, right next to their food and they said hello to Ashley for a good 30-45 seconds until they went off and ate their food.

When we walked back up, breakfast of bacon and eggs was ready for us, so we all ate. Afterwards we had to go in and clean out the servals. They weren't really sure what they wanted us to do for project time so they switched animal time to the morning. I went in with the lions first. Joseph was being really cute and snuggling with me until he decided that was boring and he jumped at me. He just wanted to play, but I obviously can't play with him. It was the first time any of them came at me from the back, so I have a nice hole in my shirt as a souvenir. He was just being so thoughtful!

I decided it was time to go in with the servals, chill out a bit, but I forgot to grab the padlock with me when I walked in and when I yelled for the person behind me to grab it, they didn't hear me so when Ashley walked by, he locked us in. It totally doesn't bother me because the servals are nice and calm and they just sit and purr while you pet them. Plus, you magically become unavailable for handlings, which really aren't that bad, but they get a little annoying. Somebody came by with the key and unlocked us. Someone left and others came in, once again they didn't hear me tell them to grab the padlock, so when Ashley walked by again, he laughed and was like, well someone didn't learn the first time so he locked us in again. Once again, I'm fine with it. Plus we had the key, we just couldn't turn it to unlock it. Someone unlocked it for us and when another person came in, they finally grabbed the padlock.

We got out for lunch time and then we found out that there wasn't any project time today! YAY! More animal time. I tried to go in with the lions again, I wasn't going to let Joseph scare me off, but he still wasn't in the best mood, so I just sat with Jason instead. Someone else wanted to come in so I switched off and headed on down to tigers. They were being good, they're always more playful with the lions, but give them a stick with leaves on it and they are so entertained. Ruby misjudged the stick and landed on me instead and ripped the front of my shirt. She realized her mistake and was off me in seconds, I didn't even realise she had landed on me with any force until I looked down at the new hole in my shirt.

Around 4 oclock we had our weekly volunteer meeting. Or talked about upcoming trips, and project time. They have so many new projects to work on, but they all start on Monday, so they didn't really pertain to me anyway. There was a bunch of other stuff too, reminders of the rules and such that she went over, nothing big, except for the fact that we are getting little caracal babies in a few weeks! Thats exciting because we only have one caracal who is 10 and he's really uptight, so maybe he'll chill out with a kind of family around.

Once the meeting was over we went straight to food prep which was over really quickly, we usually start really early and then just sit there until five oclock when the park closes. Once the hyaenas were fed, I went down to my cabin to see if Karina wanted any food. She took a sick day today and I still have a bunch of food in the cabin. I took a quick shower and then left my cabin to find her and there was a zebra, not even 5 meters from the door. It just looked up at me and kept chewing. There were a bunch around and as long as you don't get too close, they'll just stand there. I guess this one was pretty hungry because he just kept grazing, and he was still there even after I finished making my noodles 20 minutes later.

That's all for the night, I meant to go out, but I fell asleep instead. Oops.

---