What a weekend this has been so far! My day started today with a live interview on CBC Radio. I tried to remain calm, and I am told I sounded enthusiastic - yay!! I don't think I said anything stupid, which is a relief, although I am not sure I as exactly as eloquent as I would have liked to have been.
Since then, my day has been filled with animal-related activities. I think I will miss not living as close to the Preserve as I do currently, it is nice to just hop in a vehicle and help. I can't imagine doing this job without getting dirty and helping as much as I can. Granted, I expect Randy and Maria are being very patient with me and Mike, but with practise, I'm sure we'll get more natural and hopefully more helpful.
At the Preserve, we try to leave the animals alone as much as possible, but that doesn't mean there is any shortage of things that need to be done to ensure the safety of the animals or to create a more natural environment for them to live. For instance, we helped encourage our moose Millie today to move from her permanent enclosure into a smaller, more wooded pasture next door. For the tourists, this means they may not see Millie for a few days, but for a moose in the midst of labour, the privacy provided by this new home should go a long way to comfort her. I hope everything goes well and we have a new calf before too long.
In the past week, I have had the privilege of helping care for a sheep, the muskox, a goat and a moose. My role has been minimal, at best, but I have learned so much about the Preserve and how it operates. I have learned an incredible amount about the animals - their nature, their behaviour and while I know that I remain awkward and unpracticed in my animal-herding skills, I feel more confident and sure that this is the right job for me.
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