Funny Foxes

Hello again,

Sorry for the long intermission. I wasn't able to go to Red Wolf last weekend, so I didn't have anything very interesting to write about. Luckily, I did return to Red Wolf this weekend and was able to get lots of photos. Today was very hot, so we started out by cleaning and filling up all the water for the coyotes, foxes, and wolves. It doesn't sound like a lot, but many of the enclosures are overgrown due to all the rain recently, so getting to the water bins often required some hardcore week-whacking. I was also trying to avoid ticks at all costs. On the way to fill up water bins, we stopped at Yuma's enclosure so I could get some non-rainy photos of Yuma enjoying her new spacious enclosure. She was feeling photogenic for about fifteen minutes before she decided she had enough and retreated behind a large boulder.

After Yuma's photoshoot, we went to fill up the foxes' water. We stopped in to say hello to Bull, who was being much more friendly than normal:

We eventually finished watering, and then retreated from the heat. Since it had been a long time since we had played with Rosie, we decided to go and spend some time with her. She was not as friendly or energetic as usual, but that was probably because of the heat. She still managed to be pretty photogenic, though:

One thing I did notice is that both Rosie and Bull were making some pretty funny faces today. Observe:

After Rosie, we decided to take a lunch break in the wonderful air conditioned lunch room. Then it was back out to the heat to feed and clean the bears. After the bears, we spent most of the rest of the afternoon cleaning and organizing the animal kitchen / meat prep area. It was pretty smelly, dirty work but at least it was air-conditioned. My fellow volunteer screamed at least three times. The first was due to a spider crawling up her arm, the second was also due to a spider, and the final scream was due to a mouse that popped out of a box. Each time she screamed I just about had a heart attack. It was made even funnier by the fact that this volunteer is not very squeamish, so to hear her scream was pretty funny (after determining that it was not due to anything life-threatening).
Just as I was leaving, a summer thunderstorm cropped up, due to the heat. It brought a wonderful breeze and a ten degree drop in the temperature. It wasn't too bad of an end to the day!