The Story of Our Lions

Today I worked closely with Marijam in working with the mountain lions (Sheba, Tonka, and Sasha), our African lion (Samson), and our hippo (Hannah) for a majority of the day. While doing so I learned a more detailed history of how the FFA came about housing each of them.

We started the day by prepping food for the lions. Each of the mountain lions gets one pound of beef and two fish oil pills. We break the pills open so that the oil mixes with the blood and they will be more likely to take it. We also defrosted four pounds of beef and turkey for Samson, carefully fitting his medication into the pieces.

Once we got up to Samson's enclosure we began to feed him. Since we must monitor what he eats and ensure that he gets all of his medication each day we hand feed him (using a small stick). I was unable to get pictures during this because I was the one actually feeding him! Once he has had enough he will simply stand up and walk away, lounging toward the back of his enclosure, watching the cows. We tend to try and get him to eat four pounds at a time, but more often than not he will stop at three to three and a half.

Samson was originally supposed to be a circus animal, but when the trainers saw that he was born with a form a dwarfism which would lead to medical problems they wanted to kill him. The FFA saved him instead, and this is where he has been for the last 11 years!

Once we finished feeding Samson we moved to the mountain lions, each of which are in their own separate enclosure. First, we went to Sheba. All three are trained to go into their smaller area to eat while we go into the rest of the enclosure to clean their messes. Sheba often runs in too quickly for us to even get her food in there first! She is also the friendliest of the three. From what the FFA knows, she had the smoothest start to life out of all three. She was being smuggled across the border as a cub and was confiscated and transported to the FFA where she has lived ever since.

The other two, Tonka and Sasha, are more nervous, so I was more focused on quickly cleaning and getting out of their enclosures than taking pictures! Tonka was confiscated when an elderly woman took him to the vet since he seemed ill. She had been keeping him as a pet, not realizing it is illegal, and was not feeding him the proper diet. This was resulting in him going blind. However, he was rescued early enough that the FFA was able to fix his diet and reverse the blindness.  

Sasha was supposed to be a circus animal like Samson, but was found and confiscated by the Fish and Game Committee. However, they used her as a practice animal for teaching new workers how to take down a wild animal in order to transport them safely. This led to serious mistrust in humans. However, she is slowly starting to trust the good nature of the FFA and is beginning to let us come close to her, and even give her the occasional scratch on the back!

Once done with the lions we went to feed Hannah. She was found tied up in the back of a dentists house. She was severely dried out and was very under fed. The first thing she did when they brought her to the FFA was go into her pool, where she stayed for several days. 

While all of these animals were lucky enough to be rescued and taken to the FFA to live out their lives peacefully, one must always remember that this is not the ideal placement for them. We need to continue to educate the public so that unfit and unsafe situations decrease. 

50 hour mark!

Today I passed the 50 hour mark for volunteering, yay! I didn't do all that much today and mainly socialized with the feral cats to help speed up their adoptions.

However, I did begin my day with the bobs as usual.

First, I went to help with Val, Sal and Harley. Val and Sal hid as usual, an Harley held his typical position in the tree.

 I then went into Girlfriend, Reggie and Rudy's run. All of the bob's were very anxious today since the gardeners were mowing near their enclosure, which made for an even worse time for Rudy since he's the most easily frightened. He hid behind Reggie on the shelf the entire time I was in there, only peaking out to snarl at me.

Girlfriend sat on the opposite shelf watching over everyone, occasionally snarling at her neighbors through the fence!

I then moved on to Cleo, Raul and Pepperbelly's run. Raul was on the move today, sitting toward the front of the enclosure trying to escape, his usual.

Cleo decided to ignore me all together and slept in the corner.

 Pepperbelly was watching me as she sunbathed herself and conversed with Awesome through the fence.

Awesome was prancing around the run once I got to them, but quickly retreated back to hold her protective guard over Bobo and Peanut. She and Peanut must have been having a disagreement though, because they were batting at each other for a few minutes until I distracted them with treats!

Cinnamon and Ramon were sitting on their opposite shelves taking turns hissing and batting at me today while I cleaned the crates underneath the shelves. Ramon is a bit more sneaky than Cinnamon so you have to be careful not to let your guard down or he will run up behind you and knock you down!

Lastly, I was with Achmed and Kruger. They were very concerned by the mowers and therefore acted differently than their usual. Kruger stayed up in the corner on his shelf rather than coming to say hi like usual. Whereas Achmed was pacing back and forth and seemed very uneasy about the whole situation. He wouldn't even play with the water!

Speaking of water, here is the video from last week of Achmed playing with the hose!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYns3u8xSMs

As I went to take the food bowls to get clean I passed by Chewy. He is slowly getting more and more comfortable in his new enclosure and is starting to come up to us again!

All in all, it was a typical fun filled day at the FFA!

Samson's Birthday!

Technically his birthday is tomorrow (yep, our lover boy is a Valentine's baby!), but we celebrated today with Leona Lewis personally singing him happy birthday!

Here is the link to the video!  http://www.etonline.com/news/119054_Leona_Lewis_Visits_Lion_on_Valentine_s_Day/index.html

But I'm getting ahead of myself! I started off my day with the bobcats, as usual. I kept an extra close eye on Girlfriend today, she was trying harder than usual to knock me over, and Bobo was NOT pleased when I came in to clean his enclosure. He arched his back as high as he possibly could to let me know it!

Cleo and Pepper Belly, on the other hand, could not have cared less that I was in there. Until, of course, I pulled out the treats. Then they pretended I was their favorite person ever!

Achmed was ignoring when I first went in today, not even wanting his treats! But as soon as I turned on the hose he came right up to me, running around trying to chase the water and then hiding against my legs when he had gotten too wet!

Once I was done playing with the bobs I began to prep meat for tonight's dinner, 20 pounds of venison! I cut them into smaller bits and weighed out 4 pounds for each of the lions. I also inserted the medication into certain pieces, since they refuse to take it any other way!

After the fun aspects, I was put in charge of cleaning out the gutter and sweeping up leaves so no more go in it (for a day or two...). After about an hour the wind picked up and you could barely tell I swept. It was worth a try though!

I then went to keep Chewy company because we had people delivering our new medical tables and the noise was making him uneasy. I gave him a few rats and he was content!

Before I left for the day I went to see the feral cats. A lot more have been coming up to the volunteers lately, hopefully they will begin to get adopted out soon!

And as usual, one of our peacocks decided to flatter me as I left!

While I didn't get to work with as many animals today, I did a lot of work which will help give them the best possible lives they can have!

FFA

For further reference, FFA stands for The Fund For Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona! It's where I spend a lot of my time on Mondays. And seeing as today was Monday, that is where I was!

My day started off helping clean the bobcat enclosures, we have one large one in the front, where the most people-unfriendly bobs live, and then five smaller runs with two or three in each farther back on the property.

The bob in the tree above is Harley, he doesn't bother anyone, yet he definitely doesn't trust me either! While I walk around his enclosure to clean his water and collect his food buckets he keeps a very close eye on me, shifting his position in the tree as I circle around him. This is where I find him almost every time which then creates confusion for me the days he is switching it up! :)

This is Hannah the Hippo! She is a pigmy hippo that was rescued from someones backyard. She is a total sweetheart. Today I went to visit her with one of the other volunteers and we gave her hay cubes (a special treat!) As you can see from the photos, she will open her mouth wide in hopes of receiving them! We gave her a few but then she followed us all the way around her enclosure looking for more! :)

Once I stopped spoiling Hannah I decided to go visit the med-center. This is a hawk we're babysitting for another facility while the owner is out of town! He kept me company while I cleaned the crates that had recently been in use! (He's in the crate to the right!) 

We also have several peacocks that roam the property, here was one showing me his best side as I walked by to clean some dishes I had collected from enclosures!

The two pictures above are of Girlfriend. She heard me coming to the enclosure today since I had the crumpled up paper as an enrichment toy! She patiently waited at the gate until I opened up to give it to her, she immediately began tearing at it!

After watching her a bit, Pepper Belly decided she wanted to join in!

This is Kruger, he's one of our biggest bobs, but also one of the silliest and friendliest! Although be warned, he will mark his territory if you are a new comer (believe me, I know!) 

Although I was too busy playing with him than to get a picture, I also played with Achmed today, Kruger's housemate! Achmed LOVES water, so I often take the hose and spray it watching him run around! :) One of my fellow volunteers was video taping it though, so I will try to get that and post it in a few days!

I saw Chewy for the first time in his new enclosure today! We recently moved him and he had been doing an impressive job of hiding out lately, but he decided to come say hi today! :)

While walking back to the front of the property I was cut off by another one of our peacocks:)

While we have a large colony of feral cats at the center, I don't spend much time with them since I am listed under "Wildlife Volunteer." However, today they needed a project done in the cat enclosure that only a tiny person could fit into! I was happy to help, since I love when my height is a helping rather than hindering factor! I do enjoy seeing all the cats as well. :)

I had to climb on the roof of their shelters and use hooks to chain a fence along the top so that they can't get up on them for a few weeks. It is their favorite place to go so I did feel bad, but we have to start their yearly physical exams and it's very hard to get them down once they are up there!

As you can see, since they all ran from the roof I was on and onto the one in the adjoining run! 

My day was full of excitement and variation, as it usually is and I can't wait to get back up there next week!