Przewalski's Horses and Tiger Cubs and Celebrities, Oh My

Today I started training at work for summer camp. On top of everything else they've offered me, one of the supervisors asked a few weeks ago if I would be interested in teaching summer camp. My response?

HECK YES!!!!

And today-- oh, today-- made me the happiest zoo educator EVER. Why? Because I, as an instructor for summer camp, get to take my kids behind the scenes to all these cool animal areas.

Today we visited our Przewalski's horses, and I had a major fangirl moment. See, I'm, uh, kind of a horse person. And I LOVE the Przewalski's horses. They are endangered, so my facility has been trying to breed them. They are the last truly wild horse, and are the last living ancestor of the domestic horse.

My first impression? They're short. Like, good pony size. They came about up to my ribcage. We only got to see them through a fence because they ARE wild, after all. But we got to toss some carrots over the fence. And I got to take a couple really cool pictures, which made me very happy.

This is a Przewalski's horse, just in case you didn't know. Note the mohawk mane. These guys are HARD CORE.

Later, we went to our elephant exhibit, and while there, we saw a celebrity! I am NOT TMZ so I won't be disclosing WHO it was. Suffice to say they are from a very popular and long-running primetime drama show. It was kind of random, as usually the celebrities that visit us come on private tours to have some measure of protection from the public. But not this one. They were just wandering around with their family.

And then we got to go to visit our tigers. Right now, we have 8-month-old cubs. They're pretty big already, about the size of a german shepherd, but still PRETTY DARN CUTE. We got up close, about two feet away, with the cub's face pressed into the chain link from the other side. It was ADORABLE. It took ALL OF MY WILLPOWER not to reach out and pet the tiger. I could live with nine fingers. But it probably wouldn't have been worth getting fired over. So there's that.

So yeah. That was my day. And you want to know the best part? I get to do it again and again and again-- and I'LL be giving the tours the next time. With my camp kids. AMAZING.

Oh, and there are also two more days of this! I think tomorrow we will go visit the back area of our lions.

This post is because I want to share the amazingness of my job with you guys, since you were all so supportive when I got it in the first place. And because I am full to bursting with excitement that I actually get to work there and do these cool things. And I think that's worthy of a blog post, don't you?

*Note: Any and all RANDOM word capitalizations in this post are due to my current level of excitement. Regular, less-capitalized-blogging should resume next week. Maybe.