Since the last time I wrote about Little Zoo, lots of crazy adventures have taken place. Lots of ordinary cleaning and raking and scrubbing has taken place, too, of course. I'll try to stick to the interesting stuff for the purposes of this entry!

First update, it looks like Palona will be living with us a while longer. Her new home didn't quite work out, for whatever reason. I'm sad it didn't work out, but I'm happy I can still snuggle her whenever I visit, too.

A couple of weeks ago at Little Zoo, Rufio (the red-ruffed lemur) was still being stand-offish with me. And by that I mean he didn't want me attempting to pick him up. He did let me approach him, though. I kept giving him submissive cues, such as not looking directly at him, and inching closer to him rather than just reaching out for him. When I got close to him, I put my hand out, and he took it. He held my fingers in his for a long time, and let me pet him with my other hand. When I scratched his armpit, he just leaned his head all the way back in total glee. It was really funny! He was like, "That is the SPOT, lady! WOOHOO!" I rubbed his head and back and he licked my cheek and then my keys. They tasted like honey.

That's because I made B.E. (Behavioral Enrichment)! It was super fun. I first put some big nuts and seeds in bags, boxes, and an egg carton for all the parrots. Then I poured honey down the inside of a cardboard tube. Claire shook some seeds into it. The honey had crystallized and smelled SO GOOD. I don't know when I've ever come across honey that smelled that sweet! Once it was complete, we gave Simon the tube. He was so funny about it. I tossed it on the ground and within seconds, he had pulled it all the way up to his big shelf where his house is. He munched on the sides while making happy monkey noises. So awesome!

When I was making the tube in the first place, I had put down newspaper to catch the huge clumps of crystallized honey and any other honey that might spill out of it. So as not to let that go to waste, we wrapped it all up and gave it to Ty (the raccoon)! Oh man, he was so excited. He could smell it from the outside, and carefully licked the newspaper and started chewing it, like, "Oh my god, what is this? Am I getting closer?? I can SMELL something good, where is the taste?!" I love the look of inquisitive raccoon exploration; it always cracks me up.

That same day, I got to hold a ten day old porcupine! Which was, in a word, unreal. I've never even seen a picture of a porcupine as a baby before, so to be up close and personal with one in real life was incredible! I was in total awe of her. Then, when they told me the quill that they gave me a while back was from an adult version of the baby I was holding, that was even more unbelievable. The quill is twice the length of the baby herself! She is going to be giant. Amazing stuff. Also, I really like the sounds she makes, almost like humming. "Mmmph, hmm, hmm." They're not even too prickly when they're that small!

That same day, I also held Linus (the slow loris) again. He is a neat little guy and I wanted to take some pictures with him. For an animal that moves so slowly, he sure does move his head fast! He was difficult to photograph, probably because he was looking around wondering what on earth he was doing out during the DAY. "You crazy diurnal humans! What is wrong with you?" he must be thinking. But really, he was a very good sport and we got some cool pictures before putting him back. The neatest feeling is when he's adjusting himself and moves his whole body against my neck. He has super soft fur. What an incredible little animal!

The time before I'd gotten to hold a baby coatimundi. They are so incredibly cute as babies. They can be hard to deal with as adults, similar to raccoons and kinkajous. We'll see how these girls turn out. The latest on them is that they're now living up north at the sister site, where Kirsten volunteers. It's kind of cool that she and I work with the same animals, so we can update each other on how they're doing!

Another crazy story... Margherita the macaw held me hostage while I was in with the marmosets. She sat on the door, and wouldn't budge. She even terrorized us all by knocking over the marmosets' food bowl and chewing on their water bottle! When she finally moved a little, I cracked the door and she immediately put her foot inside the doorway. So then I couldn't shut it! I started to, hoping that would encourage her to move her toes. I did NOT come close to closing the door on her toe, but she still screamed bloody murder, like I was ripping them off one by one. She finally moved enough to where I could get out without hurting her or me, and without letting her in with the marmosets. I imagined her crushing them with her talons and beak! Irrational, I'm sure, as she is a total herbivore, but still. You never know! Or they could have hurt her, too, which would also be bad. Since I don't trust her in the least, I didn't reach out to pick her up and move her. (Whenever I'm around macaws, especially if they're being scary, the line from Mallory's shows echoes in my head, "...And macaws are so strong, they can snap a broomstick in half with their beaks!")

I waited until she'd moved off the door and was clear of it before closing it. Once I got out, I told Mallory what had happened. She said we should move her somewhere else, so we walked over together, and I arrived first. Marge was RIGHT THERE on the front door, threatening me! Mallory talked nicely to her, saying in a sweet-talk voice, "What's with you? You don't like Meghan? But she's so nice, you be nice to her..." She easily picked up Marge, who was instantly calm with her. Then Mallory moved her to a separate enclosure where she still had plenty of space but couldn't get on the doors like that anymore. So, it all worked out.

And what would a Little Zoo update be without Simon stories?...

I got to hold my pal, Simon, that day too. My god, I love that monkey. He chewed on my cheek and nose though, which made my eyes water. He was just a bit over-excited, and that was when Mallory took him back to calm him down and put him back in his home. Before that, though, he was very good, and licked my lips a lot. When I blew in his mouth, which he loves, he licked my TEETH. Eww. Still, the monkey love is so strong. My completely irrational "rule" for Simon is: the monkey's mouth is always clean. I KNOW he eats poo, but I can't think of that! It's always clean, okay?? I have to believe that, or else I couldn't stand for him to lick me all over my face, and I'm telling you, I will never not love that. Monkey love!

Another Simon story... When I saw him the week before, Mallory said it'd be okay for me to clean out his enclosure by myself for the first time. I had remembered to take everything out of my pockets, which was good. That way, he can climb on me and reach into all my pockets and not be in danger of hurting himself or ruining any of my things. What was really funny though, was that I had never worn shorts around Simon before. So, while exploring my short pockets, he decided to see what else he could find and stuck his arm all the way up inside my pant leg!! He reached over the inseam so that his arm was coming out the other leghole. I'm sure he was just trying to see where it led, but my god, it was a little surprising and more than a little amusing! Nothing like a little monkey getting all fresh with you to start your day off right! He makes me laugh.

Then this past week, I went to Little Zoo twice, once with Melissa, and once by myself on Saturday. I showed Melissa around and just like a typical zoo, many of the animals were hidden away, sleeping. But many were out, too, so we got to say hi to lots of them. We pet the wallabies and took Palona out to cuddle her, too. My favorite thing about Palona is that when you hug her and kiss the top of her head over and over, she'll make clicking sounds like she's kissing you back. So. Cute.

Claire also took out one of our Fennecs, Mia, for Melissa to hold. Mia behaved herself and I think Melissa enjoyed holding her.

We made sure to say hi to Simon through the bars of his enclosure. He likes to lick fingers. He even chewed gently on mine, and tugged at my wedding ring at the same time. Silly Simon. He's like, "Mmm, fingers... OOH, shiny!!"

It was a short day for my latest visit with the animals, so not too much happened. I cut up a canteloupe and then gave the shell to a few different animals: Simon, Ty, the Fennecs, and Rufio. Simon made happy monkey noises while chewing it. Ty took it immediately into his pool and dunked it and started eating it, not quite understanding how to get the melon remnants off the shell. The Fennecs ignored it, and Rufio did too. But Rufio ignored it because he was more interested in me. He leapt onto my shoulder right when I walked into his enclosure, something he hasn't done in months! It was awesome! He let me scratch his armpit. Then, he licked the inside of my nose fiercely. It actually kind of hurts when he does that! It's incredibly awesome, though, because he's greeting me the way lemurs greet each other in the wild. It's nice to feel included. After spending some nice quality time with him, he gently climbed down off of me to explore the canteloupe shell, so I left on a good note.

Speaking of which, I'll leave you on a good note, too, since that about wraps it up. In conclusion, hanging with the animals is as fun as ever! And I feel incredibly grateful to have Little Zoo as part of my life. I say that every time, I know. But it's super true. More stories as they come. Thanks for reading!