Last night was our third program in the TNATZ series, this time given by our zoo veterinarian, Dr. Riley Wilson.
Those of you who know Dr. Riley, from The Pet Stop, know he is a wonderful man. Everybody loves him, from the humans to his patients! He is, however, rather uncomfortable speaking in public, so sometimes his programs can get a little … off.
Katie, the education director here at the zoo, helped him out a bit more this year by bringing three animals into the greenhouse for his presentation. That gave him something to talk about, and got the ball rolling (as they say).
We had Peabody, one of the great horned owls, on hand (literally) – with his handler Jana. Next we had Chance, the red fox who was so badly injured as a kit – along with his handler Mary. Last but certainly not least, we had Karuna, one of our ball pythons – and I got to stand in as her handler!
All three of the animals did very well. Peabody was slightly nervous, but didn’t do much more than look around the place. Chance was amazing – I’m so pleased to see him looking so healthy! He was nervous, and kept running around Mary’s legs on his leash. She’d hold him and he’d settle down for a while, then struggle to be put down again. Karuna was great: she just kinda hung out around my neck for a while, then started to sniff around a bit. Towards the end, she actually started to squeeze on my neck just a little too hard – but nothing to get concerned about. She was just flexing her muscles, I think.
Dr. Riley spoke of what it means to be a veterinarian, how he got to be the Zoo Vet, and all the different types of care the animals receive. The audience (and we had about 46 people!) asked all sorts of questions afterwards, and Dr. Riley did great in answering them all.
Channel 11 was on hand that night, filming a bit-piece story of things to do out and about town. I’m told that I was on TV this morning! I wonder if anybody else saw it…
No comments:
Post a Comment