This is the email I just sent out to my family mailing list about last week's program with Little Zoo:

At Mom's request, I will share the python story! :) ...

At the little wildlife place I volunteer at, we did a program and took the 8 foot Burmese python. He's 60 lbs and gigantic. He's the largest snake I've ever held. In fact, I couldn't hold him by myself (maybe someday). We laid him on the table for the kids to be able to pet him. And it was my job to hold his head by me (away from the audience). He did great for a really long time. The funny part was when he decided he'd had enough. He just started to leave! Of course, he's this giant snake and just started moving his whole body off the table. The girl I work with helped me get him back on the table briefly, but he kept trying to leave because he was tired of all the people, so the two of us put him in his crate (which he was also not very happy about!). As we were gently putting him in there, trying not to break any of his scales, he lurched part of his body one direction and I totally got knocked off balance. I kneeled down and maneuvered my shoe so as not to step on his tail (he'd just scooched it right under my foot). We finally got him in there and it wasn't too big of a deal but his strength was so powerful and surprising, I just had to laugh. It was a really cool experience!

Of course, since I went back today, I have even more cool animal stories to share...

First of all, when I was changing everybody's water, Spring, the wallaby, surprised me by grabbing my leg. She sniffed my pants and grabbed me and I had to push her away. Then Mallory told me Spring was trying to hump me! It was kind of funny, because I didn't know wallabies did that. Well, I mean, I didn't realize a female wallaby would ever hump a person! I expected that from the dogs I worked with, but wallabies? Too funny. Except not really, because it was kind of scary, too. I love petting her so much, I never imagined I'd have to push her off of me, and tell her, "Get away! Shoo!" But yeah, it's kind of hard to get anything done when she's grabbing me and attempting to seduce me. Mallory said, "Whatever your jeans smell like, apparently, it is very exciting!" Hee!

I got to help prepare diets today, too. I really love that part! I chopped up lots and lots of fruit and got all messy and sticky. It was fun! While we worked on the food, the birds kept making us laugh. Poncho kept saying, "Hello, Ponchoooooo!" And Conrad kept repeating, "Goooood boy!" and "Okay." He made me laugh a lot when he kept saying, "C'mere!" over and over. Parrots are terribly funny animals.

Mallory and I gave Turbo, the two-toed sloth, a bath today! Well, Mallory mostly did the bathing, while I fed Turbo bits of banana. Sloths are kind of cranky animals anyway and Turbo was none too pleased about her bath. But it had to be done, and Turbo got out some of her frustrations by chewing on Mallory's glove in between eating her fruit. All in all, she was really good, actually. Really good, and now, really clean!

Mallory and I also took pictures of each other with the animals. Of course, my batteries (that I recharged last night for the very purpose of taking pictures today!) died early on, so many of the pictures were taken using Mallory's camera. Those I'll get in a couple of weeks. But at least we got a few really cute ones with my camera, too...

the rest of the pics are here

At the end of the day, we moved some of the animals inside so they'll stay warm at night. I got to move Rufio (the red-ruffed lemur above). When I went into his enclosure he jumped into my arms, crawled over my shoulders, and promptly peed on my back. So gross! But at the same time, how many people can say they've had a lemur pee on them? Kind of cool. Still, I changed my shirt before I left, and took a shower when I got home, of course!

What a fun day!