Did You Know that Emu's Will Cuddle?

I had no idea until I saw Fiji cuddling with a keeper the other day.  He laid his head on her shoulder and she stroked his neck.  I thought he was going to go to sleep.  I now have an appointment with Fiji next time I work with the birds!  That would be a cool picture to have.

It had a GREAT day with the animals last week. 

I actually saw a koala joey in the pouch.  Never expected to see one of those.  I tried for a picture but by the time I got my phone out, Mum had moved her leg and that was that.

I learned kangaroos will swim in the pond.  Haven't seen it yet but still hoping to.  They don't seem to be designed as graceful swimmers.  They must roo paddle (somewhat like a dog paddle).  Apparently, they swim in the surf also. 

Well, who wouldn't?

While cleaning bird enclosures, one of the Corellas donated a feather for me to take home.  I carried it in my pocket with my leather work gloves all day long.  Sturdy feather as it still had its' shape at the end of the day.

And to top it off, while feeding the Tawny Frogmouths cockies (cockroaches), I held my fingers too close and was nipped.  More surprised than anything.  Of course, after that I dropped each cocky and had to dig around for it in the much.  Each Frogmouth gets 18 cockies for dinner.  Yum!

Yesterday, I worked in the barn area.  While we had the miniature ponies out for a graze, one of the kind tourists let four of the sheep and Lewis the goat (see previous post on June 26) out of the petting zoo area.  They were all standing around near the fence, munching on fresh grass when, all of a sudden, they realized there was an entire paddock they could go run in.

Whoosh - there they go - full tilt to the other side of the pasture.

Well, except for Lewis.  He TRIED to run with the sheep but had a mouth full of eucalyptus branch and had to stop and finish his snack before resuming his run.  Always safety first!

There was no way we were getting them off of the grass for at least 30 minutes.  Of course all of the other sheep were standing at the fence bleating their disgust at the favoritism towards the escapees.

SO we let them all out and:

Whoosh - there they go - stampeding off to the other side of the pasture.

Needless to say the petting zoo was somewhat empty for the afternoon show...