Introducing Quirqui, 18 Avril 2008
Well, I got to work today to be told that I wasn´t adventurous enough to work with Millie. She really needs to go off trail and Vanessa felt that she was not progressing as much with two people. Like she´d become more lazy again. This surprised me as, by my books, Millie was walking enough, but in some ways I was relieved as the job was really too dangerous by my books, so I didn´t argue too much. I´ll miss little Millie dearly and will never see her again as her cage is too high up for me to trek for 40 mins to catch a glimpse of her again, but it´s also good to have different experiences.
I was told that they could put me with Quirqui, the 15 year old grey puma, for 3 days and maybe with the ´small animals´the remaining 3 (they have caotis and taryas -spelling?-).
Quirqui´s story is another sad one. He was kept in a zoo for a decade and they put him in a small cage where he could hardly move so he developed muscle loss. They also didn´t feed him properly so he lacked vitamins and ended up with a twisted bone on his front leg. Plus, now he´s getting older, he´s got severe arthritis. When he walks he looks more like a bear than a puma, poor little thing. It´s really painful to watch. But when he lies down he´s really gentle and purrs as soon as you rub his head. It´s actually quite amazing to see that a mountain lion that has been SO badly treated by humans can still be so lovely (some of the other pumas were used as pets till they got too big and started to jump on people for fun... the families didn´t like it and broke their back legs to stop them jumping). Some really sick stories.
But Quirqui has been given a new lease of life and though he can hardly walk more than 100m now he is quite contented chewing on our arms lightly. The good side of being with him is that it´s now possible for me to have a decent lunch break and to use decent toilets... but the down side is that it´s really boring as he does very very little, he has bad breath (he used to have gum disease) and he dribbles a lot... so if you give him your arm to chew on, you soon stink. Oh, and his ´house´smells of urine as he is an old man and now incontinent so cannot be as clean as Millie.
But outside that, I´m working with Sara who is Danish, 19, but really nice. She has been working with him for 2 months and has not had ONE day off YET... so in 2 days I will look after Quirqui all on my own to give her a break.
I took some great shots today. As I am not working so hard, I looked more relaxed and more human so my pix with Quirqui will actually look better than the ones with little Millie.
Voila... It´s now 7pm and I´ve asked my driver to come and pick me up at exactly 7pm, to avoid having to call him, so I need to sign off. I do hope you are keeping well too. I must say I have totally forgotten the concept of work. It is relaxing for me to do NOTHING... such a rarity when I am in London. I´ve even started reading a novel ... and I have to add it is about 20 years since I last had time to read a novel, so... say no more !!! But when Quirqui snoozes, there is not much to do and ditto once I´m back in my hotel room.
Till next time... probably in 3 days again I guess. When I have a bit more to say... ok ?
Well, I got to work today to be told that I wasn´t adventurous enough to work with Millie. She really needs to go off trail and Vanessa felt that she was not progressing as much with two people. Like she´d become more lazy again. This surprised me as, by my books, Millie was walking enough, but in some ways I was relieved as the job was really too dangerous by my books, so I didn´t argue too much. I´ll miss little Millie dearly and will never see her again as her cage is too high up for me to trek for 40 mins to catch a glimpse of her again, but it´s also good to have different experiences.
I was told that they could put me with Quirqui, the 15 year old grey puma, for 3 days and maybe with the ´small animals´the remaining 3 (they have caotis and taryas -spelling?-).
Quirqui´s story is another sad one. He was kept in a zoo for a decade and they put him in a small cage where he could hardly move so he developed muscle loss. They also didn´t feed him properly so he lacked vitamins and ended up with a twisted bone on his front leg. Plus, now he´s getting older, he´s got severe arthritis. When he walks he looks more like a bear than a puma, poor little thing. It´s really painful to watch. But when he lies down he´s really gentle and purrs as soon as you rub his head. It´s actually quite amazing to see that a mountain lion that has been SO badly treated by humans can still be so lovely (some of the other pumas were used as pets till they got too big and started to jump on people for fun... the families didn´t like it and broke their back legs to stop them jumping). Some really sick stories.
But Quirqui has been given a new lease of life and though he can hardly walk more than 100m now he is quite contented chewing on our arms lightly. The good side of being with him is that it´s now possible for me to have a decent lunch break and to use decent toilets... but the down side is that it´s really boring as he does very very little, he has bad breath (he used to have gum disease) and he dribbles a lot... so if you give him your arm to chew on, you soon stink. Oh, and his ´house´smells of urine as he is an old man and now incontinent so cannot be as clean as Millie.
But outside that, I´m working with Sara who is Danish, 19, but really nice. She has been working with him for 2 months and has not had ONE day off YET... so in 2 days I will look after Quirqui all on my own to give her a break.
I took some great shots today. As I am not working so hard, I looked more relaxed and more human so my pix with Quirqui will actually look better than the ones with little Millie.
Voila... It´s now 7pm and I´ve asked my driver to come and pick me up at exactly 7pm, to avoid having to call him, so I need to sign off. I do hope you are keeping well too. I must say I have totally forgotten the concept of work. It is relaxing for me to do NOTHING... such a rarity when I am in London. I´ve even started reading a novel ... and I have to add it is about 20 years since I last had time to read a novel, so... say no more !!! But when Quirqui snoozes, there is not much to do and ditto once I´m back in my hotel room.
Till next time... probably in 3 days again I guess. When I have a bit more to say... ok ?
posted by Sylvie at 10:50 PM
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