Click here for Part 1...

When Kirsten told me last night that she wouldn't be able to volunteer today, I was a little bummed, but still looked forward to going out there anyway. After all, it's a really cool place to be, plus I'd already done a lot of yardwork on Tuesday, which meant that maybe there'd be some animal jobs I could help with!

After I arrived, I asked one of the staff members, Mallory, how I could help out. She said, "Well, I'm just finishing up diets, so why don't I show you how to lay out some DG?" DG stands for ...something-Granite. I forget what the "d" stands for. But I'll find out soon (ooh, a cliffhanger!).

We filled up an entire wheelbarrow with DG, then went over to the animal enclosures. We went inside with the wallabies, and I was so excited. They were right there! Mallory showed me which spots to shovel DG onto. Since DG is the general flooring used, it gets raked away wherever the animals have spilled food or peed/pooped. Sometimes they just wear it away by digging, too, so we take new DG and fill it in. At one point, the larger wallaby, Spring, came over and Mallory said something that was music to my ears, "Oh, you can pet her if you want." Eeeeee!

I reached down to touch her, and her fur was so incredibly soft! I was really surprised by that. Spring's a whole lot softer than she looks. The other wallaby, Roo, scampered around but pretty much left me alone. Spring continued to hang around. At one point, I came back over to the wheelbarrow and her little face popped up on the other side. Her expression was like, "Hi! Whatcha doin'?" It totally made me laugh. I think I pet her every time I passed her!

Then... THEN. I got to go in with the marmosets! I filled in their floor, too, and they just stared at me. At one point, I seriously thought one of them had peed on me. I felt something on my shirt, but when I felt and looked, nothing was there. Then I noticed their long tails and realized one of them had just brushed against me. There are two total and they were the ones on The Tonight Show a few months ago. When I told Joe that later, he laughed and said, "They're celebrities!"

"They are!" I laughed.

And Joe said, "It's so funny the things that make you all excited."

I really wanted to touch them, but again, I wasn't sure if it was allowed. I also knew nothing about their personalities at that point, so this is the scene I kept playing in my head:

Mallory: Why are you bleeding?
Me: The marmosets bit me.
Mallory: You didn't touch them, did you? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!

< / End Imaginary Scenario >

Heh. So anyway, I just looked at them and talked to them, and watched them cock their head from side to side, like they were trying to figure me out.

As I worked, I thought, this is the most amazing thing ever. Whenever I've gone to zoos, I've seen people inside the animal enclosures, feeding the animals, cleaning the habitats, etc. Every time I saw them, I thought to myself, I want that job! I want to be in the cages just working NEAR the animals. And all of a sudden, I am that girl. I just couldn't stop smiling.

I also put DG in the crows' cage, and as I worked, one of the nearby parrots scared me by suddenly saying, "HELLO!" I knew I was alone, so that hello made me jump out of my skin. About a second later, I realized what happened, and laughed. "Hello, parrots!" I called out to them and laughed a bit more. It reminded me of the time the raven at the wildlife center did that, except her voice sounded like a freakin' PERSON'S voice. It was really early in the morning and I was totally alone in the room and I had no idea she was even in there, so as I jumped two feet in the air, I thought, "It's HAUNTED!" before I realized it had to be the raven. Ha! So crazy...

Anyway, as I was finishing up with the crows, Mallory joined me. We got another wheelbarrow of DG and spread it in several other birds' enclosures. I tried not to hit my head on the low cage bars, but it was hard! I clunked myself a few times.

Afterwards, we checked on the sugar gliders and I watched Mallory give them new bedding and food. They are cute little creatures. I'd never seen them up close before! They have huge eyes and very soft looking fur. They're really neat!

I took a break and ate a sandwich and Mallory asked if I could help her put a shelf in Simon's cage.

"Absolutely," I said. I was so excited, because I'd almost outright asked her earlier if there was any way I could just SEE Simon up close. I had refrained, though, knowing I'd probably eventually get an opportunity to see him, if I was just patient. And now here was my chance!

After I ate, we got to work. We just walked right into the enclosure, and Mallory picked up Simon. I was amazed to watch her holding him, and even more amazed that I was so close to him.

"Is it okay if I touch him?" I asked.

"Let's see. Simon, are you okay with Meghan?" she asked the tiny capuchin. And before I knew it, he'd leapt into the air and landed on my shoulder. I was in shock. There was a monkey ON MY SHOULDER! I closed my eyes and smiled as I felt his tiny hands rapidly run over my cheek, chin and hair. And then he stuck his tongue in my ear!!! (How forward of him, heh!) It kind of tickled, but it amazed me more than anything else. I seriously have waited my entire life to interact up close and personal with a monkey, and all of a sudden, it was actually happening. The moment seemed to stand still in time, just for a bit, and then it was over. He jumped off my shoulder onto the ground to go play, and it was time to get to work.

We unscrewed shelves and large pieces of wood from the wall, then installed a new shelf. It was really cool work. It reminded me a lot of building furniture with Joe. I love holding stuff in place, figuring out placement of shelves, and keeping track of screws and bolts and things. It gives me an opportunity to pretend I'm handy!

As we worked, the fun with Simon continued. I still felt that, "Oh my god, I'm the girl working in the enclosure with the animals right next to me!" feeling from earlier. And Simon kept making me laugh by getting into everything and running on top of everything and generally getting in the way. I loved it! He ran around and tugged on my pants, peeking inside the cuff of my jeans and reaching into my pockets over and over. He seemed fascinated that my cargo jeans had pockets on the side of my thighs. He stuck his hands in there quite a few times, and I was beyond relieved that he didn't snag my cell phone. I was worried, though! His little arm just never went deep enough to find it, I guess. Thank god!

Simon also sat on my back at one point while I was leaning over and lifted up the back of my shirt. I guess he just wanted to see what was up there! And several times, I felt him playing with my shoes. He liked tugging at my laces, and I even caught him gnawing lightly on the rubber toe of my sneaker! Too funny.

Mallory had to get something at one point, so she left me in there, since Shawn was nearby working on the lemurs' cage. (Side note: Lemurs make WEIRD, loud noises! They sound very machine-like, and when they do make animal-sounding noises, they sound like cats!! Very strange, cool animals.)

As I waited for Mallory to return, Simon reached up and grabbed my hand, holding two of my fingers in each of his two hands. Then he rubbed the top of his head into the palm of my hand and bounced up and down. He also lightly mouthed me with his teeth and licked my fingers and my arm. He did that several different times, actually! That particular time, I laughed and Shawn said to me, "Just think, if you'd gotten into EATM, you'd have had to wait a whole other year to do that!" And that just hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Oh my god. You're totally right!" I said. I shook my head, letting his words sink in. Amazing how things happen sometimes, isn't it?

He asked, "So what's your thing? What's your favorite animal?"

"Monkeys. Monkeys and apes, really," I told him.

"Wow, well there ya go!"

After Mallory returned, Simon inspected my hair some more. Then he just flopped himself across my chest and curled himself into a ball. I put my arm under him to support him and he just sat in the crook of my arm for a bit. Mallory looked over and said, "Did he just crawl on in there?"

"Yeah," I said and put my other arm on him, feeling his incredibly soft fur.

"Oh, don't hold him," she said. "Let him hold onto you."

"Oh, okay," I said, and relaxed my hands a bit. Simon decided to bound off someplace else for a bit. Of course, he came back to play with my shoes and hair a little bit later! But as he scampered away, Mallory told me that the reason she can handle him and hold him a lot is that she has a really good bond with him. She's been his sole trainer and handler for a few years. But since he just met me, if I hold him and he feels restrained by me, he could bite me. And of course the goal of any animal worker is to minimize the chance of bites, right? Well, unless you're Steve Irwin or Jeff Corwin and don't seem to mind snake bites so much or whatever. I guess I should only speak for myself. MY goal as an animal caretaker is to get bitten as infrequently as possible! So if that means letting the monkeys scale me and play in my hair without actually holding them, that totally works for me!

There was more to do, but since we were coming up on Very Scary Traffic Hour, I decided I should head out. As I left, Mallory thanked me for my help. "You're awesome!" she said.

"Well thanks, glad I could help!" I said.

And Paula said, "Thanks SO much, Meghan! We love having you here!"

"You're very welcome! I love being here!" I told them.

I really, really do.