Weekly Update 30

Hello Everyone!

I had couple of cloud nine moments this week! Two very specific ones – the first being that I was able to feed a sea lion! Eeek! I fed the lovely Diamond, she was perfect and very gentle. She has a reputation for getting annoyed and huffy very quickly if she thinks her friends are getting more attention than her or if she thinks you are taking to long to feed her. She also always barks when you run out of fish and let her know that she won’t be getting any more at the moment. Well, I think we shared a very nice time together and she knew I was new and was like “oh, you must be new here, pleased to meet you.” She also did not bark at me when I ended her session! I will always take that as a personal winning moment.

My second fantastic moment was when I helped Aleta (the dolphin) do her nebulizer – Linda was her trainer at the moment and she was working with summer. She asked if one of us could help and I said of course without even knowing what she needed help with, when I got down on the dock, she said to help her do Aleta’s nebulizer. That is a medical behavior that is usually done by trainers and the medical team, to assist with it was really fun. Aleta is also known to be wary of things and is always watching everything so that she is not taken by surprise – she usually takes multiple tries to set up and be calm for her nebulizer (always making sure nothing has changed about it), well Aleta set up and did it beautifully with me in just two tries! Something almost unheard of for her. I was so excited to just do it, but to have it go so well was a special moment. Feeling like I might be getting the hang of being a marine mammal trainer!