ZOOs and all that FUN stuff

I keep trying to get a post up but I am meeting with complications. I will have to substitute with this till I get that worked out.

This is Lydia by the way. On Wednesday I started my volunteer work at the zoo in Norfolk.
My plan since I could talk has been to work at zoo, or rather own my own zoo and have my children and husband help me run it. I think that this one of my many ideas is still in effect after Wednesday.

As a volunteer of 15 years I have only so many options but I am working as a keeper aide.
This means that for the first 20 hrs. I am shadowing a keeper of a certain String (each group of animals is a String with about two keepers). My String is String 2 the primates and a few birds String. So far I really love monkeys.

Most of you probably know I love my pet chocolate lab Lucy. And subsequently I think dogs are some of the best things for kids and all people, not to be disloyal to horses my other love but it is not always practical to have a pet horse. And I would rather someone did not have a horse than have one the could not take care of . The same goes for all pets.

This is one of the reasons I love Zoos! I could not have an elephant of a tiger or a gibbon or an endangered tree shrew but at a zoo I can learn about, love and enjoy all these with out hurting them or compromising their comfort.

Horse are some of the most healing creatures I can think of. I can I imagine how unconsciously lacking I would be if I had never started riding. I have learned so much even since I got my horse(Owl Prophet) 1 1/2 years ago. If I ever have kids I will get horses. I would consider that a necessary thing. But if I can't do that right away I will use whatever animals I can, particularly the zoo.

I think monkeys are some of the jokiest and entertainingest animals. On my string we have 4 squirrel monkeys which are, obviously squirrel-sized monkeys with very long tails. They jump around, all over. We also have gibbons one is old and thinks everything must be taken seriously, which makes her look like a joke all the time. The other gibbon is an adolescent male and he plays around with the older one till she gets huffy.

The only other monkeys are actually apes. They are highly dangerous mandrills and we have no contact with them even when we are cleaning their cages. They have to be in a separate cage. And after we are done we have to triple check every lock and a second person has to go through to check as well. String 2 also takes care of a crane, a couple pigeons/love birds and an ocelot, shrew, porcupine, and some kind of other tiny monkey with a hard to say and spell name.

Well that is about all my job (for now). Come to the zoo and visit! It is so fun!
I will look for you!

-Lydia

Luke 18:1-8

All about us dead men fall
Children scream and women call

Good is shattered Earth is broken
All of this is just a token

Pain surrounds us crying loud
Suffering that makes us bowed

Where is safety? Where is peace?
When will all this anger cease?

Hurting can not get relief
Those with hearts are filled with grief

Anguish settled in our minds
Men with good hearts hard to find

In the midst of all this wicked
Hope to come is still predicted

Justice in the form of Love
Heavenly Father from above