Final Post

Hey Everyone!
I first and foremost have to apologize. Getting this post out took me way longer than it should have! (>.<) I sincerely apologize for the lateness, but I hope this last post was worth the wait. I have many pictures in here and a variety of experiences that I would like to share.
This blog post will be including my last week at CCF, as well as my time while I was with my family in Barcelona, Spain, plus a few extra photos here and there.

My Last Week at CCF

My last week at the Cheetah Conservation Fund was fun to say the least. For one, it was adorable to see ALL the baby goats that were born. They were so. cute. I know you have all read me commenting on their cuteness waaay too often, but you can't deny these faces....

I found it interesting to learn that all of the dairy goat kids (baby goats) are separated from their parents after a few days. This is entirely different from the Boer goats, where the kids are left with the herd. But it does make sense, by separating the kids from their mothers, the farmers are able to take out an allotted amount to give to the baby's, and the rest of the milk can be used and sold in various forms. In this way, they keep as much milk as they can, since kids will drink constantly during the day usually. It is also very smart how they breed the goats. From what I was told, they breed only half the goat herd at a time. This way, there are always goats on the way, and especially for the dairy goats, it means that there is always at least some milk that can be used to sell, as well as used to make many of the products, like soap, ice cream, and fudge, at CCF. 

One thing that I was very fortunate to see before I left, was a work up on a wild cheetah. One afternoon I was picked up and told that I was going to help with something. It turned out that the plan was to capture and collar a wild cheetah that had been showing interest in the cheetahs that were in the quarantine pen. Within two days of placing the trap, the wild cheetah was caught. It was incredible to see the difference between the cheetahs at CCF, and the wild cheetah they were going to collar. The muscle mass alone was incredible. His thighs were incredibly thick, which makes sense. Even though CCF exercises the cheetahs to the best of their ability, a wild cheetah has to work extra hard just to catch his food, and that's assuming it isn't taken away by another predator or a large group of jackals or vultures. 

This is Merlin, one of the captive cheetahs

This is the wild cheetah

You can see in the two cheetahs above the difference in the muscle mass, it really is amazing. Besides that, measurements were also taken on his teeth, and the rest of the body, just as they have done on all of the cheetahs that came in before him. Even after seeing the process a few times, it is still amazing to see all the information that they gather and how they do it, as well as seeing what they look for. For example, this cheetah had a either broken or worn tooth on him. 

At this point, they are waiting for the cheetah to swallow so they
can take out the tube, this way the cheetah doesn't choke or suffocate

My last week at CCF, although busy, was really amazing, I was able to say goodbye to all the cheetahs and the dogs, plus along with the memories I have made, and all the different things I have learned, it made the entire summer incredible and definitely worth while. I will miss everyone at CCF, and I am grateful for all the help I received, for all the lessons I have learned, for all the new friends I have made!

Barcelona

My time in Barcelona was incredible. The day I flew in I was picked up by and Uncle Johnny, and my Cousin Marina and we went to pick up Aunt Irene to go out to lunch.  The food in Barcelona was delicious! From hamburgers to cultural foods like the thick tortillas and gazpacho, to the homemade meals that my family made, it was all so good! I tried a variety of different foods, and enjoyed quite a bit of it! Plus, being able to spend time with everyone while also being shown the different sites to see around Barcelona. 

During my stay, I went to the beach with my cousin about three times, one of those included my Uncle and Aunt. The water was so. warm. compared to the water of the West Coast. And during the last day we went, the water was incredibly clear! The water was a beautiful blue, the waves were smooth, and easy hitting the shore. We could see different fish swimming around us, and when we went to deeper waters, where the ocean floor was far below our feet, we could still the bottom! It was amazing! I just wish I had some goggles that day. 

While there, Marina and I walked and took the train almost everywhere. It was really cool because it let me see the city from the little alley ways to the main roads and the metro. It was amazing some of the stuff you come across in the alley ways. Sometimes you'll find graffiti and other times we came across messages placed letter by letter using soda cans. Marina knew of quite a few little places to go and views to see. There was one view on a mountain that let you see most of the city! It was incredible, and even though I didn't get to see it at night, she mentioned seeing the lights was even more so. It must be incredible.

 

The one thing that captured my attention throughout Barcelona was the architecture. It was indescribable. As I was shown around parts of Barcelona, I could see the various eras of architecture. Now, by no means am I an expert, nor will I pretend to know what each era was or who made it, but definitely admire whoever created them. The one architect I do really like though, is Gaudi. I was fortunate enough to see some of his creations, including the Sagrada Familia. Its amazing that this building is still being built more than 100 years after it was started. It is really interesting seeing all the different pieces of it, because although the architects working on it are following the basic instructions, they are adding their own style to it. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the buildings Gaudi made, even if I wasn't able to go into them. 

I can't tell you how grateful I am to my family for letting me stay with them for a week and showing me around Barcelona. I had fun staying with them, and being able to interact with my family.

I loved Barcelona and all the experiences I had there, and am really happy I was able to end my internship with that trip. 

Thank you for all who have been keeping up with this blog, (Even though this post is waaaay later than it should have been (>.<)  ) I enjoyed my trip, and hope that you enjoyed seeing the pictures and experiences I shared on this blog. 

Final Stretch

Hey everyone!

I can't believe that its been 10 weeks already. As some you many know, I start my trip back home from the Cheetah Conservation Fund next week. My last day of work is this Sunday, and I start my trip Monday morning. It's a long trip, but fortunately its only a total of 24 hours of total travel, and it's also broken up into two parts since I am visiting family in Barcelona. I am super excited to see my family, and I think it has been 13 years since I last had a chance to visit with my mum. This will be an amazing ending to my trip out of the country.

This past week has been rather eventful all in all. For one, another dog, Taya, has had a litter of 6 puppies, and let me tell you, They. Are. ADORABLE! I haven't had many chances to see them, but when I have I have taken pictures. They are so cute when they are first born!!!

On top of all the puppies, this is the time of year that many of the goats here have their kids. It's SO CUTE!!! There are so many cute kids around it's not even Funny!!! For some reason, a lot of the little ones this year have been male, which unfortunately means that they will be meat goats, but there are some cute little girls that were finally born. They're so FLUFFY, I'm gonna DIE!! XD
I just had to take a couple selfies with them (Holy cow..... The world must be ending because I actually used "I'm taking selfies" in a sentence. What has this world come to. . .)

Also, I had these little stowaways on my saddle last week. I was putting on the two pads on Ghouli, a sweet white horse I was riding, and when I removed the second pad, I saw these two on the saddle. 

Safe to say they gave me quite the surprise. They were quite brave too, they refused to get off the saddle for several minutes, and even then, they didn't want to go very far after I coaxed them off of it. 

Besides that, the weeks have just become increasingly busy. Plus, on top of that, there was a small... err... fiasco that occurred when another intern, Nick, and I went to walk the dogs with another intern on her first day, Sam. Most of the dogs are at the Kraal, with all the goats. There are two dogs, Nesbit and Kiri, that are down near Silver pens, near some of the cheetahs. First we grabbed Nesbit, and took him outside, and Nick went into the next pen to get Kiri. When he brought her out, and the new intern opened the door, Kiri lunged and the least slipped out of his hand. Nick and I both burst after Kiri, and Nesbit was more than happy to power me along after her, and we ran about 1/2 a kilometer before she slowed down and started chasing a large warthog. I was about 20 meters away, and Nick had passed me and was only about 5 or 10 meters away from Kiri. The warthog then made a U-turn and began to run straight at Nick, who dodged out of the way very quickly. The warthog ran around a bush, and ran within 5 meters of me, but I just wasn't close enough to grab Kiri. They both ran into the bushes, where we lost her for 2-3 minutes or so. Nick followed her into the heavily bushed area, and we both started calling for her. Soon after we heard barking. Since I was holding onto Nesbit, I took the road, and Nick continued through the Acacia bushes. She ended up by the Quarantine pens, where we hold cheetahs that have been recently brought to CCF, these are at the very far corner of the silver pens. At the quarantine pens, Kiri found an adult female Kudu, which she decided to chase. Nick at that point had caught up, and tried to catch her while running around the quarantine pens 3 times. I finally arrived and hoped the Kudu would run past me so I could grab Kiri, but instead it turned and started running back towards the dog's pens. The two cheetahs that were in Silver pens had at that point noticed the Kudu, and followed them from the inside of the pen. Note: This kudu was not running very fast, if I ran at full speed, I probably could have caught up, or kept up, but both Nick and I were too winded to keep running. We walked back to the dog pen, where we saw the cheetahs sitting winded and breathing after the chase. We put Nesbit back, and started walking towards the hotspot from two different directions in the hopes that they went in that direction. Nick walked up a hill while I walked the road. Kiri had ended up at the small waterhole

past the hill, where Sam had followed them and was trying to get Kiri. Kiri had, before I arrived, got in the water, and was having a stare down with the Kudu. Sam tried to get Kiri, but instead, Kiri started getting out of the water, and the Kudu jumped into the water. Kiri then started biting at the Kudu, and eventually latched on, while the Kudu had apparently given up. I finally arrived, and Nick and I jumped into the murky water to drag Kiri away. Initially, Nick grabbed the collar, but it slid off and Kiri went back to the Kudu, then he grabbed her from around her body, while I grabbed the collar. At some point during this time, Nick unfortunately got kicked, which bruised, but he was otherwise okay. We slipped the collar back on, and I wrapped the leash around her waist, so that Kiri wouldn't be able to slip out of it. We ended up having to drag her out of the water, because she certainly wasn't walking. I can't count how many times I got stuck in the mud, and had to try several times to get my foot, or feet out of the mud. The Kudu, on the other hand, just sat there. . .

Eventually, we got Kiri out, and Nick and I dragged her to the top of the hill. At that point, Nick ran to get someone to look at the Kudu, and I brought Kiri back to her pen. She looked SO proud of herself. For a dog who can't get rid of her baby fat (she had puppies in June), that dog can Run.... The Kudu ended up walking away okay, but she did seem a bit shell shocked, so to speak.
All things considered, it was definitely an interesting end of my day...















This past Sunday, the last intern who was here when I arrived finally left. It was sad to have her leave, but I am sure that, although she was sad to be leaving, she is also super happy to be home and see her family and dog. I certainly am excited to be leaving soon! I want to see my fuzzy boy!!!

Next Monday.....
Guess what Monday was????!!!
ANOTHER WATERHOOOLE COOOOOUUUNT!!!!
But this time, the interns were in Bellabino. I am sooo happy!!! It was actually really cool. We were at a high high, which for some reason I did not get a picture of. . . Don't know why. Regardless!
It was actually a really eventful day. We saw a wide variety of animals, including Giraffes, Oryx, Zebra, Impala, warthog, and HONEY BADGER!!!! It was a short period of time, but I am super excited that we saw Honey Badgers. I have haven't seen any out here, and even some of the staff members haven't seen any while they have been here. Also, a lot of the animals that came through had babies and juveniles with them. There was even a few day old Eland calf!!! IT was SOOOO CUTE!!! Here I am gushing, but honestly, a pictures worth a thousand words, and maybe a video too....

Ana had to take a nap, I don't blame her!

As a final Note: I will be uploading one more blog post, but it won't be until two weeks from now, when I return home from traveling. I plan on enjoying the time I am with my family, and then I will post about that final leg of my trip as well. Enjoy the next two weeks! And for those of you in Bend, See you guys soon!!!