Week 4 - Jennifer L.

This week I was given permission to touch all the animals!! I am so excited. I finally get to love on these amazing animals. Their fur feels amazing. Slowka, one of our asian leopards, has fur that feels like silk. Serabi is the female lion. She won't stop licking my hand and rubbing against the cage so that I can reach all her favorite spots to be pet. I've really started to build relationships with the animals as well as the volunteers. Most of the volunteers are really nice and hard working. I'm really enjoying my time here. Now that the animals are comfortable with me and I can interact with them, it makes all the work I do for them easier. Lately I've been doing some manual labor. I've had to mulch quite a bit all around the reserve, and I've had to put some wheel barrels together. I've also had to fill in some ditches that they dug to put in piping. All of this in the hot sun is really taxing. I've been crashing really hard when I go to bed and I always take two showers because I smell like poop, raw meat, and sweat when I get home. My parents and my boyfriend came on a tour this week. It was really fun having them involved in what I've been so passionate doing this summer. I'm happy they're getting to see all the animals I've been ranting about all the time.