
When I lived in Houston and had the time to walk in Hermann Park and make astonishing relationships with all the wild animals (to the point that people began calling me Snow White), when I was a Docent and a Carnivore Keeper's Aid at the Zoo and later worked there in Interactive Marketing, when I was an Animal Rescue and Rehabber both at home and for the Wildlife Center of Texas, I reported here on all the animals in my world. I wrote about a wide variety of encounters, but narratives on some regular characters began to emerge.... Kiva, the Zoo giraffe, aka my boyfriend, the complex and tender relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Goose, the devoted pair of Chinese Geese from the Park, and the baby squirrels I rehabbed at home, starting after Hurricane Ike flung about 2500 babies from their nests - and how all, from neonates to the mothers, all ended up in our rehab center to be fed, squiggle, and be nursed back to health and returned to the wild - to name a few.
Below are some of the best of those posts, to revisit if you have been a long-time reader, or to discover if you are new here. You can also pick your favorite species and just click on the list to your right, and all the stories about them will come up.
Happy reading!
The Houston Zoo:
First Day as a Keeper's Aide at the Zoo: Grizzlies
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2008/08/poo-of-pooh.html
About my boyfriend Kiva, the 19' tall giraffe: http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2008/09/im-in-love.html
Swimming Cats - The Malaysian Tiger:
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2008/04/only-big-cat-that-likes-water.html
Hermann Park:
Mr. and Mrs. Goose - Love and Marriage
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2008/09/fluffy-butts.html
When Mrs. Goose returned after being missing for weeks:
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2008/08/shes-baaaack.html
Playing catch with wild Blue Jays:
(The clip that caught me tossing a nut and the Blue Jay catching it)
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-you-believe-it.html
Wildlife Rehab :
Hilarious footage of an orphaned baby goat's first day at the center.
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2009/02/thursday-at-wildlife-center-woman-in.html
A two-part story about two little fox squirrels who almost didn't make it. The first is about getting them well and having to return them to the Center *sob* http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2009/11/love-is-letting-go.html
The second is about going to see how they'd settled in and how they'd grown....The day I found two chickens clearly out of place in a very ritzy neighborhood, and how I had to sneak them into my high rise to spend the night before I could take them to a wildlife center.
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-give-thanks.html
Squirrel Philosophy:
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2010/01/guardian.html
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2010/04/found-two-chickens.html
Part two - Morning delivery of the pair of Chickens and the Rooster who was pretty happy to see the new roommates:
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-found-two-chickens-part-two.html
AND.... SAVING THE MOST AMUSING IN THIS CATEGORY FOR LAST:
Funny squirrel sleeping positions
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2009/08/sleep-clinic_22.html
More hilarious squirrel sleeping positions:
http://naturegirrrl.blogspot.com/2010/02/more-sleep-positions.html