Monday, May 10, 2010

Today I volunteered to get the new facility ready to move the Kanyana animals into tomorrow.  The new place is such an improvement, with all new equipment in the hospital and kitchen, and a separate building for patients in isolation.  In the old place the hospital, kitchen and isolation units were all together, now the kitchen alone is about twice the size of the original facility, which is the house of the sanctuary's founder.  The new grounds are located out in the Perth Hills, in a beautiful bush setting with lots of tall trees and peace and quiet.

Friday I go out to my first school to observe the education program, and we'll take about 10 different animals to show to the kids.  Here are some of our education critters.  This spiky guy all covered with leaves is an echidna, kind of like a porcupine or a hedgehog.      

And here's what he looks like underneath.

This is a pic of me holding a bobtail, or shingleback lizard.  They are very slow moving and quite heavy.

And this is a boodie, also known as a burrowing bettong.  He was sound asleep and wrapped in a pink blanket, obviously a mistake since he is a boy, guess there were no blue blankets around..  When I asked a volunteer what his name was, and she said "Boodie", I replied that I knew he was a boodie, but I wondered what his name was.  When she repeated "Boodie," I thought we were having an Aussie/American communication problem, but in fact, his name really is Boodie.  Boodie the boodie.