It's not all fun and games with the cats every day... some days it's just maintenance tasks and making the site look better. I spent a large portion of the day painting enclosures and checking for damage. I won't kid you... this is a lot less fun than doing the usual feeds and cleans, but on a nice sunny day it's kind of enjoyable, plus it's a very important task. Ensuring the enclosures are painted keeps them in good condition, prevents rust and the obvious escape risk.
It was fun to see the cats' reaction to us painting and the paint itself. Climbing on top of the den roof to reach the higher parts of the fence whilst there is a curious male lion looking up at you is a little daunting. Discovering one of the lions has a fascination with the newly painted doors resulted in a rather green-faced Tiny. The quantities he managed to rub off on his face were not high enough to be harmful, but just enough to be a distraction to the photographers that were in later that day.
The enclosure now looks very green and like new, and I have a wonderful green speckled complexion that just won't budge. Nice to be out in the sun all day though!
The day was topped off with a visit from the vet team - more to come later on that. Nothing too serious, one of the Amur leopards needed an exploratory operation in search of a possible foreign body in his foot. Strangely enough I had been through a similar operation with my Jack Russell last summer - grass seed above his eye. Fascinating watching the operation on a larger cat, and privileged to watch a vet team at work... but yes, I'll go into that more later on.
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