Category: animals

The Spiders Rise pt. 2

indigoshellLeave a comment

Parts of the following blog are fictional accounts.

Tuesday
I’m always the first one back from breakfast, so the dorms are quiet and still. Halfway down the hallway, a drawing of a cartoon spider flutters to my feet from it’s position on the wall. It was an omen, I swear it was. There was a spider in the dorm’s cutlery drawer when I was looking for spoon to make hot chocolate with.

The girls went to bed that night feeling weary but quite hopeless. We all knew that the relentless torture would not ease up yet. “Third time’s the charm,” they say.

3am and the all-too familiar sound fills the dorm. I laid awake in bed for 20 seconds or so, contemplating just staying in my room and facing the consequences.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one with that thought, as I was the first person out of the dorm. The other humans took their time coming out because they knew that there was no fire and no danger.

We’re all tired. We’re all bickering.

Wednesday

No sign of our 8-legged friends anywhere, so I felt internally relieved. The other girls felt hopelessly exhausted and didn’t have as much knowledge as I do.

All was quiet that night. Not a peep, not a ring, not a twitch.

Thursday
6:40am and I’m brushing my teeth, eyes still closed and dozing off in the silence. A friend screams and points to the wall – a large brown recluse, crouching and staring at me from the mirror. I bring him outside and try to calm my beating heart, now definitely awake.

There’s the cartoon spider at my feet again. I had stuck it back onto the wall on Tuesday, and today… Well, there it is.

9pm Thursday. I’m prepared for their final attack.

Friday
5am and I was woken by the smell of smoke. It was faint enough that the fire alarms didn’t go off.

There were about (aw heck no) a dozen spiders on my floor.

They all ran under the crack of my door and I followed them out into the hallway and out of the dorm. It was hot outside. Like, fiery hot. Actually, there was a huuuge fire outside the dorm that singed the edges of my tie-dye shirt and curled the ends of my braided hair.

The fire alarm finally went off but the dorm didn’t jump like it usually did.

Everyone was sick of the fire alarm. Every single one of them stayed in their beds and covered their ears and groaned. Nobody was awake enough to smell the smoke or to even bother to check the hallways, where smoke was coating the ceilings.

The dorm dogs ran outside silently, followed by a cat and several hundred more insects of all shapes and sizes.

I thought I was dreaming, which is why I only laughed and waved at the dorm.

Bye.

Photo credit ifiberone.com

Goodbye.

Shark Bait Ooo Ha Ha!

mushuooLeave a comment

Recently Sharks have been spotted in the ocean off the coast of Ventura…

Sharks in the ocean? Not again.

Six sharks were spotted quite close to shore near Ventura South Beach.

Still wanna go for that morning surf?

Previous to this warning, there have been multiple incidents off the Ventura Coast involving sharks.

The sudden emergence of these creatures makes me wonder why they have chosen to come a little too close for comfort.

After doing a little research on the subject of shark’s behavior, many (probably false) websites accused the animals of coming near shore to look for people.

Most of me doesn’t believe this due to the fact that sharks do not have a behavioral history of purposely attacking humans, but what if they actually are coming closer for more food?

All I know is I will NOT be going in the ocean for quite some time.

Photo Credits: http://www.treasuregurus.com

 

Crow Craziness

mushuoo1 Comment

Currently, the human species is the smartest on the planet.

I repeat, currently.

I walked into the living room and my mom was watching a TED Talk on her iPad. About what you may ask?

How freakishly intelligent crows are.

Crows have the intelligence and communication skills of a six-year-old child.

Scared? I’m just getting started.

Crows have the ability to plan, recognize faces, hold grudges, conspire with one another, and have incredible problem solving abilities. 

A university in Seattle conducted an experiment where students wore face masks and tagged each of the crows with different colored anklets to identify them, which they didn’t enjoy.

Each time the students would put on the face masks, the crows who were tagged would find the student wearing the face mask that tagged them and proceed to swoop down and harass them

Talk about holding a grudge.

Remember that next time you shoo away a crow.

You’ll know who pooped on your car.

Photo Credit: thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com

 

The Spiders Rise pt. 1

indigoshell

Sunday
11pm (on Saturday) and I’m piling wet clothes into the drying machine. A few socks fall to the ground and I feel an ominous tingle touch my spine while reaching for them. In the gap between two machines is one of the largest spiders I’ve ever seen in my life, about an inch long with legs. Now, I’m not afraid of spiders, but I could’ve sworn that this one was looking right at me.

Photo cred – Spiders.us

That night (or morning), all was well until 3am. Alarms blared and the whole dorm seemed to shake as 40 girls fell out of bed. The fire alarm had been triggered, and the standard protocol was to all file outside into our circular driveway.

I was in such a rush that I forgot my shoes and glasses, which normally wouldn’t be a problem. It was dark out and the little moonlight we had were shadowed by the bodies of stumbling girls. Twice I nearly fell down the stairs.

The real kicker? There was no fire. And we all knew it.

Monday
While making tea that morning, a (rather normal sized) spider scuttled across my feet and made its way out the door. Spiders are very normal occurrences around the girl’s dorm, but most of them actively avoid humans. So this was a very, very odd thing to experience early in the morning.

Everybody went to bed that night as usual, not suspecting a repeat of the night before.

5am came around and the same shrill sirens went off, startling the dorm and ejecting the girls into the cold. I remembered my shoes this time, but it was still cold, dark, and disorienting. 5am was an odd time for us to wake up, as most girls wake at 6:30 anyways. I considered staying up, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to decide.

I knew that this was just the beginning.

I Don’t Really Know What to Blog About This Week.

mushuooLeave a comment

I have been in a rut about blogging.

I cannot come up with a writing prompt to save my life.

So this week, I’m just going to write about something that has been on my mind: Dogs.

I have two of them, I grew up around them, and I love them more than anything else in the world.

A few months ago, I began volunteering regularly at my local Humane Society, and have found myself falling in love with a dog named Dodger.

Dodger is a smooth-coated Chihuahua mix who’s chubby belly sways about an inch off the ground as he struts by.

Every time I go in to volunteer, I head straight towards Dodger’s play pen to say hello to him and his friend George.

I would adopt him in an instant, but my Husky Shepard mix and Chihuahua Terrier mix are a handful already.

Anyone want a cute, chubby Chihuahua?

 

Photo Credit: http://www.chihuahuawardrobe.org (not Dodger)

 

 

Orcas vs. Horses?

indigoshell

Orcas, or killer whales, have been kept in captivity since 1961, and there have been books and movies made about them and how cruel it is to use them for our entertainment. As I read Death at SeaWorld (and watched Blackfish), I started to think about the similarities between horses and orcas in “captivity.”

Both are large, potentially dangerous, and used for entertainment and sport. Both have caused injury, both have caused death, and both are highly intelligent and (seem to) experience emotions and moods.

The only difference I see is that horses have been domesticated for 5500 years, which is far more than the 50 or so years that orcas have been kept captive. Somehow, I feel like the domestication, and perhaps usefulness, is what’s saving horses from being “liberated.”

Our horses, like the orcas, are kept cooped up in small stalls, while feral horses can travel 65-80 km daily for food, water, and shelter. To rid their energy before riding, we make our horses run in circles around us in a little pen.

Horses can get “moody” and “off.” Sometimes they’ll refuse jumps, buck for no reason, or refuse to slow down while trotting or cantering. So we blame the rider, trainer, or the weather. Orcas can be like that too, refusing trainer orders or protesting in their guttural language.

After I was flung off my pony and broke my clavicle rather terribly, I couldn’t do much of anything but sit in my room all day. I still can’t ride, but I can lunge and groom as long as I’m careful. The pony that bucked me off didn’t seem crazy, guilty, or dangerous whatsoever, and I felt no fear or trauma while looking at him. I was injured so severely that my bone was in danger of impaling through my shoulder and I required a two-hour surgery, and something like that sticks in your mind.

Huge controversies came up and multiple rules were put into place when the first orca injured its trainer, yet when I was injured by my pony my friend was instructed to keep riding him because he “shouldn’t be allowed off that easy.”

I don’t think my pony’s intentions were to hurt me, just like I think that killer whales don’t really want to kill us. But if I were stuck in a cubicle, working for hours with little to no rewards, I would probably go a little nutty and stir-crazy.

Just sayin’.

ASITs, Attention! ASITs, Begin! Junior Missing, Junior Missing!

indigoshell

The buddy system – it’s a common thing among younger children, for safety, you know, for safety. With 240 acres of land and forest and potentially dangerous animals at every corner, campers must walk in groups of two or more at all times. Even Seniors and ASITs have to do it. Counselors are the only ones that don’t need to follow the buddy system, though I think they’re the ones that have the most potential to get injured.

The buddy system is fairly complicated. The ground rule is that you must have a same-gender buddy at all times. You know, so nothing happens. Last year, my female friend and I would have a male friend with us, and that was allowed. This year though, it wasn’t allowed, so the only way we could hang out with our guy friend was if he had another male buddy. It wasn’t a huge deal, really. The only complaints we had were “freedom” complaints, but most of us were too tired to really care.

When Juniors have their Free Time, us ASITs have to sit in an area and make sure that they have their buddies, water bottles, and name tags. We also have to make sure that all the animals aren’t too perturbed (a favorite word of one of my counselors) to be handled, nobody leaves their buddies to go to a different Animal Area, they take with them everything that they brought into the room, and above all that, we have to make sure that everyone’s handling their animal correctly.

My (specialty) favourite room is the Reptile Room, and let me tell you, having 10 juniors with 10 different snakes and lizards out can be a little stressful. Not only do we have to make sure that snakes and lizards are on opposite sides of the room, our Kingsnakes have to be five feet away from any other snakes, we have to make sure none of them touches the ground, snakes aren’t allowed around necks or shoulders, and we have to watch each animal for irritation.

For different Animal Areas, different rules apply, and different amounts of stress follows each area. But the same idea remains: keep the animals safe, keep the Juniors safe, and hope that the Seniors are smart and listen to their Counselors – because Counselors are the ones that work during Senior Free Time.

ASITs, attention! ASITs, begin! Work more, work more!

indigoshell

Sometimes, our classes and courses get cancelled. Sometimes, we have 28 ASITs and not enough relevant classes to stick them into. The ASITs without a job, or wanting to do something different, can do Chores.

Chores are basically what they sound like; they’re chores. Some Chores are easy, like refilling Turtle Pond (the size of a very large kiddie-pool), or difficult, like deep-cleaning an enclosure (taking out all the shavings, scrubbing down the walls, then bringing in 2-4 more bags of heavy shavings and emptying them).

Some ASITs (me) request to do Chores because they don’t have to deal with numerous amounts of people. Some people are just put into chores simply because there really isn’t anything else to do.

Chores were then renamed “Projects” because, for some reason, the word “chore” seemed to have some sort of negative sound to it. None of us agreed, but of course it’s not any of us changed it anyways.

The three Golden Rules of being an ASIT are:

1. Always ask for more work
2. Always be enthusiastic
3. Always follow the rules

ASITs are always working, so if you ever take a rest, you better be sure to either hop back to work in a minute or two, or that everything is done. Then, when you’re finished – you’re not really finished until you ask someone for more work and they say that everything is done.

Ever tried to be helpful and enthusiastic for every second you’re with campers? Neither have I, because it’s utterly exhausting. Unless you’re naturally an extrovert, there’s no way to always be enthusiastic. I wasn’t known for my enthusiasm. In fact, I was known for how stoic I was, but nobody gave me grief about it because it was my “thing.” Believe it or not, we can be punished for not being enthusiastic enough. One or two bummers could ruin the whole ASIT crew’s night.

ASITs, attention! ASITs, begin! Cry a lot, cry a lot!

indigoshell

A 14-hour workday is not easy for anybody, especially not for teenagers aged 15 to 17. You have to, have to, follow the rules, or risk either being asked to leave camp or be demoted back to being a camper, which, speaking from experience, is a rather sad experience.

Being an ASIT gives you a lot more freedom. You don’t have to sign in and out during free time whenever you want to walk around camp, you’re allowed to have your electronics (phones and/or laptops), and you don’t have to be under constant Counselor supervision.

But with great power comes great responsibility. We, the ASITs, know more than campers, and often know more than Counselors too. During Morning Rounds, it’s our job not only to clean and water the animals, but to check for sick or dead animals. It’s usually and ASIT that discovers a dead or dying animal first, even before any Animal Specialists. Following that job is having the responsibility to not let any campers (or gossipy Counselors) know that an animal had died. Usually, a short “oh Dallas went to the vet” is enough to quiet a kid down.

ASITs are aged 15-17, so often times campers that are 17 years old won’t want to listen to a 15-year-old ASIT. “Threatening” them with a Counselor works most of the time, but some campers can be stubborn. Some rules are tough, annoying, or seem meaningless to the Camper and the ASIT too, but it’s there for a reason and ASITs do everything they can to keep campers and our animals safe.

The most frustrating part of being an ASIT may not be the hard physical work but dealing with animals and people who just don’t understand why things are they way they are.


Then there’s our mold problem…

Bird Boy

instalocker

alien photo super legit completly real

Introduction: The year is 4041. Earth was dying. The only things besides humans were birds. Then, earth made contact with another planet who invited them to come live with them. All humans fled Earth to live on this new planet. All except one infant boy who was left behind. When the humans left, the friendly aliens restored Earth, bringing back all the trees and flowers. Earth was back to normal, like humans had never been there. Sadly, the aliens couldn’t bring back the animals. The boy is raised by birds and this is his story.

“Baka baka” said the boy. His calls were sad and poorly pronounced. “Baka baka” he said again while sitting on the ground. He was left behind for the winter, and not even the mama bird would stay with him. He was an outcast – he couldn’t fly. The five-year-old boy now crawled around the world, never knowing about walking, he searches for a teacher or a friend. Everywhere he goes sees birds and hears birds, but they will never come and play.

The boy is sad, because whenever he says his call there will be no sounds. The air, filled with birds, is silent like he is all alone. Then, a few minutes later there will be anything but silence – birds would start chirping and singing again. Sometimes, the boy would wonder why he can’t fly, or why he doesn’t have feathers. But he didn’t wonder long. He was easily distracted.

Years went on. The five-year-old boy is now 35, and no longer calls for the other birds. He just crawls with his head down, never looking at the sky, because it saddens him. As he was crawling, he hit his head on a tree. He was hurt, and by instinct yelled “Baka baka”. The skies were silent, until a female bird landed right next to him. The bird looked similar to him. She was tall and featherless. The only difference was she could fly. “Baka?” she said. “Ba baka” he responded. She wanted to know why he was on the ground. He said he didn’t know how to fly.

Suddenly the female bird pick up the man and said “Baka ba,” which meant believe. She let go. He flaps his arms, and is about to hit the ground, when suddenly, he starts floating elegantly into the sky. Boom! A loud, unfamiliar sound was in the sky. It was a shot, and it had hit the man. He fell from the sky to his death. The female bird landed, and turned from what looked like a human to the aliens, and said: “Bird Boy test successful. How is the Fish Boy doing?”  shortly after there was a response “Fish Boy is doing well, he can go weeks now without air.” The alien that taught the man to fly said: “Take them to the ship. We need to run more tests. We need to figure out why they can convince themselves to do the impossible.”