Gus looking particularly handsome with his scarf.

Aaron showed me his leg first thing Thursday morning, and of course I decided to show you. Thougths?

What did Aaron walk into in the bear yard?

Even the Duck wants to know

Yes, Auggie was the creator and although I didn’t train him to make it sit upright when I found it, I was very proud.

An interesting fact is that pigs can be trained to relieve themselves in one spot. They can have a very big “litter box” inside a home.

I came in. Jessi and Aaron had confirmed all the bears, and all the animals at the museum were where they were supposed to be and the only damage was to the bear fence. It took us until about 9 AM to get all the bears secure in the house, and then the work began to get the big tree(s) off the fence. The rain held off for the first couple of hours, but the rest of the work took place in anywhere from drizzling to more-often-than-not torrential rain. Daniel and Dale from the Facilities staff worked hard for almost an hour and a half to get the tree cut off the fence.

Dale, one of our Facilities Staff members, works on clearing the trees.

We cleared large sections of the top of the tree by tossing them, pushing them, pulling them with ropes, down into the bear yard. Dickerson fence arrived at 2 PM to repair the fence and Daniel got the electric lines and insulators rehung. Much of the bear yard was covered in water, including electric fence lines, so the bears spent the night in the house. (The Farmyard rabbits spent the night in the main building because there home was flooded out too). At 7 PM it was bright and sunny- it was very weird being in Explore the Wild in the bright sun given how the rest of my time was spent earlier in the day.

By 8:30 AM Saturday morning, the water had subsided enough and the electric fence was confirmed to be operational so the bears were let out.

This is such an abbreviated tale of what occurred Friday. I could share with you about scrapes and bruises and other tweaks and injuries that staff received; radios missing in sections of trees that fortunately, were eventually found and will maybe work again after drying out;  puddles that you thought were only a couple of inches deep but all of a sudden your knee was wet;  flooding and leaking…flooding and leaking just about everywhere.

Another storm is behind us. Let’s hope the next storm is far off in the future… well after my retirement.

So can anyone identify this lovely specimen?

Remember, this is not restricted to the farmyard so there are a lot of possibilities.

I would also like to add that I found this poop sitting up straight and I was impressed.

original drawing

Many of you commented, but no one was exactly right. The above drawing was indeed of a bear- Gus to be specific. The round dot on his back was his puff of matted hair. I did not think the puff was drawn accurately (unlike the rest of the drawing) so I added the “dart”, “spike-like” projection out of the back.  There is no way I could have drawn this- my artistic skills are poor at best. I do mostly-fine drawing names, and only moderately okay drawing stick-people. This drawing was done by Aaron.

Here’s how I would have drawn the above:

Sherry’s version

The drawing was made so we could visually review who would be standing where during the bears’ physicals. (It was also made for the enjoyment factor because everyone knows I like a good drawing). Positioning is critical during any procedures with dangerous animals, even when they are behind bars. Jessi is the primary trainer for the bears, so she will be there. Dr. Vanderford will be there, with Katy of course doing the physical.

We’ll let you know how the physicals turn out- maybe Aaron will draw another picture!

So,

#1- Who drew the picture

#2- What animal is drawn (and how do you know… or why did you guess…)

#3- What’s happening