[Zoo] I said goodbye to our otter tonight. She's leaving us for The Bronx Zoo tomorrow morning.

oh no

She's special to me because I got to work with her a year early. It was a privilege and I'm seriously grateful I got to work with her.

It's not all bad though!

After they drop her off at the Orlando airport tomorrow morning, they're swinging by Disney and picking up a male otter to bring home.

Yay otter going on to awesome things!

He's going to be part of a breeding pair for us. We might get otter babies before I graduate!

And Makara (our otter) will be joining a male her age at The Bronx, so she won't be lonely anymore.

Somewhat related: I learned something fascinating about our zoo curator tonight.

Backstory: She is legendary. She's been there since the program began in the 70's. She can walk in with and hand feed any animal we have there (including the ones that would eat the rest of us).

Total bad-ass.

Today, me and some classmates were talking about her and we wondered what kind of music she might listen to (since she's going on this road trip tomorrow).

Someone suggested only classical piano. I said audio textbooks because she absorbs all the information and has no time for frivolous things like puny human music.

So, tonight, I come back to the zoo after closing to help catch up our otter and get her ready to travel. I walk in and the office is dark except for Kathy's desk. Her computer is on and her phone's plugged into it. Music is playing.

Guess what it was?

TAYLOR SWIFT

I love it. I am taking this information to my grave. I will not tell another soul at the zoo.

Aww

I'm going to miss the hell out of the otter, but she's going to be a lot happier now that she'll have a friend.

awww, good for her

and you'll have a new friend

Yeah, I'm really kind of hoping I get picked to be on the new otter training team. It's going to be a crazy ride.

You're doing awesome work!!

I'm trying! We finished our unit on animal training today with a test and I got a 96. My instructor seemed very happy.

That's awesome!!